Chapter 7 – A Break

Three members watch on in absolute confusion as Ravi and N utterly coddle Leo during their entire promotion period. They’re always ready to answer the questions that Leo avoids or redirect the attention to another member when the teasing becomes too much.

Hyuk, Hongbin and Ken don’t mind too much though, because Leo is always in a good mood these days. They’d honestly been scared of what might be going on when they’d heard him crying that night.

“Aaah, it’s finally over,” N sighs after their final stage.

They’d won a number of awards for this song and overall they were on a high. They could use a break though. Apparently their CEO thought the same thing, announcing that he was willing to send them somewhere.

The members thank him but ask if they could just spend the week at home. The CEO agrees readily enough, though he’s a little disappointed they won’t be shooting another holiday show. He also suggested that they all go see their families during the week.

Most of the members nod in agreement but Ravi is frowning at Leo. Last time they’d been given the opportunity to have time off, he’d wanted to go home to his family. This time he didn’t suggest it himself, and now that it was an option, he didn’t jump on board.

Ravi’s frown deepened. Actually, now that he thought about it, when was the last time that he’d seen Leo on the phone with his parents or gone to visit his family?

“N-hyung, are you going home?” Ravi asked N as they ate dinner.

All of the members were sitting and eating together, something that didn’t happen as often now as it used to a few years ago, thanks to their schedules and general bad habits.

“It’s too far,” N whines into his rice.

“It’s not that far, if you stay for a few days,” Hongbin says.

“But I want to spend time with you guys!”

N had no drama filming this week, and he’d taken a break from his radio show just to feel like he was having a real break from work.

“You guys are so lucky, coming from Seoul,” N continues to whine.

Hyuk clears his throat and raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t count, Hyukie, you still live too close.”

Ken, Hyuk, Hongbin and N start discussing who is going home but Ravi was watching Leo. Leo was doing his best not to get involved in the conversation (weird considering he’d been making his best effort lately to be involved) and was picking at his food (extremely weird and also a little worrying in Ravi’s eyes).

“Are you not going home, hyung?” Ravi asks Leo quietly while N continues to nag at his other members.

Leo shakes his head and hastily gets some food into his mouth, probably hoping Ravi won’t ask questions if he thinks Leo can’t answer. His hope is for nothing though.

“Did you have a fight with your family?”

Leo’s eyes flash up to Ravi and then nervously flitter towards the members. Ravi understands everything from that one tiny glance.

“I get it, hyung,” Ravi smiles softly. “Let’s talk about it later?”

Leo nods and goes back to picking through the side dishes.

“Ravi, are you going home?” Hongbin asks him suddenly.

“Nah, I saw my family the other week.”

“Yah, you should go see them,” N scolds.

Ravi forces himself not to point out N’s hypocrisy. He wants to tell N to pay attention to s’ feelings, to notice that something is going on with Leo. Ravi is starting to get annoyed at the leader but then he notices N peek worriedly at Leo during the clean-up.

“Why don’t you three go to the convenience store and buy snacks?” N suggests when they were finished cleaning up dinner. Hyuk, Hongbin and Ken all look towards N with raised eyebrows, he rarely let them get snacks.

“What about Ravi?” Ken asks, suspecting non-existent favouritism.

“It’s his turn to choose the movie,” N informs them. “We all know how long that takes.”

Ravi, who was sitting right there, opened his mouth to protest but closed it quickly, questioning himself. Did he really take that long to choose a movie?

“Ugh, we’re going!” Ken cries.

“We’ll even take our time,” Hyuk adds, putting on his shoes.

The three of them are gone in a matter of seconds. N runs his fingers through his hair, his smile dropping, and his shoulders becoming tense.

“Why aren’t you going to see your family?” he asks suddenly.

Leo, who is sprawled on the couch, visibly tenses. Ravi, who is sitting on the floor in front of Leo, throws N a cautionary look. N, who hadn’t meant to approach the topic so head on, kicks himself.

Ravi almost jumps in surprise when Leo’s arm suddenly drops down off the couch and over his shoulder. Ravi twines his fingers with the older man’s and squeezes.

“They told me not to come back,” Leo whispers.

Ravi moves instantly, pushing his way onto the couch and curling up with his hyung the best he can. N kneels at the end of the couch and threads his fingers into his friend’s hair.

“Sorry,” N whispers, but Leo just shakes his head. Apology unnecessary.

“It was a while ago, almost two years.”

Ravi and N lock eyes, both thinking the same thing. How had they not noticed that? To Leo, his family was one of the most important things, it came before everything. For him to not be on good terms with them must had been incredibly hard. And yet they hadn’t noticed…

“It’s okay, it’s mostly just my dad. I still talk to my mum sometimes, and my sisters give me updates on how they’ve been, so it’s not like I don’t talk to them at all.”

“Just because you’re gay?” N asked softly.

“Mm.”

N gives a small tug on Leo’s hair. “You should have told me when it happened.”

Leo’s eyes flash up and meet N’s. “You say that a lot.”

“That’s because you never tell me anything!”

“I’m glad you told us, hyung,” Ravi says. “You can tell us anything.”

“You say that a lot,” Leo repeats with a sigh.

Ravi lifts his head off of Leo’s arm to make eye contact with the older man. “That’s because I mean it.”

After several seconds of continuous eye contact Leo’s cheeks begin to redden. Ravi smiles. “You’re really cute.”

The pink tinge quickly morphs into a full blown blush, even his ears. Leo quickly sits up, pulling away from Ravi to fan himself and take a calming breath.

“Stop teasing him,” N scolds, knocking Ravi on the head.

Ravi grins and stands up. “Okay, fine. Now what movie should I choose?”