Jealousy in Technicolour (Part One)
Title: Jealousy in Technicolor
Summary: Or rather in which Woohyun is a clueless jerk, Sunggyu is jealous and the members are just entertained and plots.
Pairing: woogyu, myungjongyeol, dongya, OT7.
Rating: G
Notes: This turned out longer than expected so it's split into two parts :)
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It’s a quiet night he thinks as he rolls over onto his back, kicking off his blanket. Too quiet, he thinks morosely, straining to listen for any sign of life in the quiet dorm but he hears none. He sighs. Sunggyu cannot seem to fall asleep. Actually, it’s more like he doesn’t want to fall asleep. His body is tired, aching from today’s dance practice and schedule and what he really wants is to crash but doesn’t want to.
He exhales harshly, rolling off his mattress and onto the mattress right next to his. He lands face first into Woohyun’s pillow and presses his face into the downy cotton, breathing and taking in the scent of Woohyun’s shampoo and the slight hint of vanilla that Sunggyu just knows is from the younger man’s facial product and Sunggyu is hit with a sudden sense of loneliness without the younger man around to talk to him and hug him.
Feeling the need to breathe properly, Sunggyu pulls Woohyun’s pillow to his chest and hugs it, feeling a little sad. A moment later, he wakes - he fell asleep? - to the sound of the front door opening and he catches the faint sound of feet on the wooden floor and the manager saying, “Get some rest. You have to be up early tomorrow as well. Goodnight Woohyun,”
“Goodnight,” he hears Woohyun say in response, voice a quiet murmur so as to not disturb the sleeping occupants of the dorm. Sunggyu’s breath catches when he hears the whisper of Woohyun’s socks brushing against the wooden floor and he rolls back to his mattress, the pillow clutched to his chest securely, feigning sleep.
The door opens with a quiet creak and Woohyun steps in, observing the sleeping figure with a trace of amusement. “I know you’re not asleep,” he says eventually, breaking the silence that fell over the house. Sunggyu doesn’t move, continuing to feign sleep as he breathes evenly.
He opens an eye and hides a smile in the pillow when he hears the sound of Woohyun’s shirt dropping to the floor carelessly and a second later, he has a warm body pressing against his, an arm slinging carelessly on his waist, the weight welcomed as he breathes out a silent laugh that he turns into a cough.
“Stop pretending,” Woohyun scolds without any heat, his breath fanning across the leader’s cheek and sending goose bumps across the warm skin.
“I’m not,” Sunggyu mutters in reply, angling his head to look at Woohyun with half-lidded eyes. “Of course not,” Woohyun agrees with a laugh, nosing Sunggyu’s cheek. “That’s why you’re talking to me right now,”
Sunggyu smiles widely. “I’m sleep talking,” he says matter-of-factly, earning a chuckle from the younger. “Don’t laugh! It’s an unfortunate condition!”
“After two years of sharing a room with you, you suddenly start sleep talking? When did this happen?” Woohyun mocks the older playfully, pressing a careful kiss to the older singer’s jaw. Sunggyu laughs quietly, squirming and twisting to lie on his back, head touching Woohyun’s as the younger traces nonsense into the skin of his stomach.
‘When did his hand get under my shirt?’ Sunggyu wonders absently, catching hold of Woohyun’s wrist when it gets to close to a ticklish spot. “Go bathe,” Sunggyu snaps playfully. “You’re sweaty!” Pulling a face, he nudges Woohyun’s chin gently with his head and presses a nose to the younger man’s neck, inhaling. “And you smell like girl perfume,”
Woohyun picks up the trace of disgruntlement and jealousy in his lover’s voice and smile indulgently. “Okay, okay. I’ll go bathe and I’ll make sure to scrub till I’m nice and clean okay?”
He rolls off the mattress and gets up on unsteady feet before turning back and dropping to his knees to press a quick kiss to Sunggyu’s lips and running off, clean boxers in hand as he whisper-shouts, “I love you leadergyu!”
“Yah!” Sunggyu calls out after him, smiling brightly. “I love you too,” he says softly to the empty room and snuggles down, hugging the pillow tight, falling into peaceful slumber.
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Sunggyu wakes the next morning to the sound of ‘Nothing’s Over’ playing in his ear before he realizes it’s his alarm and he reaches out blindly to grab his phone and turn it off, mumbling sleepily. He sits up, yawning widely and running a hand through his hair, the other stretching to shake Woohyun awake. He frowns in confusion when it hits an empty mattress that’s cold, the heat from its sleeper gone, a sign that Woohyun had been up for a while.
‘That’s odd. Woohyun-ah never wakes up before I do,’ he thinks as he stands up and stretches, hearing a ‘pop’ in his spine that has him feeling less tense. Sunggyu shuffles out to the living room/foyer of the dorm to find Howon doing his morning stretches on the empty space in the area.
“Morning hyung,” Howon greets, bending over to touch his toes. “Morning Howon-ah,” Sunggyu replies absently, looking around to see if Woohyun’s in the kitchen or something. “Where’s Woohyun?” he asks.
“He went out this morning. Manager-hyung said something about Woohyun-hyung having dance practice,”
“At 7.30 in the morning?” Sunggyu remarks, raising his brows in surprise. “Woohyun’s brain isn’t even awake at this time!”
“I think he went early to the SBS building to practice the dance with *Miae-sshi for the Star King recording today,” Howon answers, arching his back. “I think he said something about taking her out for breakfast first though,” Howon adds on, voice coming out weirdly because his head’s thrown back. Sunggyu pulls a face that the dancer misses because the younger has himself stretched out in a kneeling position with his head to the ground.
He goes into the kitchen to throw something together for the members to eat. They have a full day ahead of them and Sunggyu would rather lose three nights of sleep then have his members fulfill the schedule’s needs on an empty stomach.
“Howon-ah, finish stretching then go wake the others up,” Sunggyu calls out, popping his head out of the entrance of the kitchen whilst pouring out a glass of juice. “You know how Sungjongie and Myungsoo-yah takes forever in the bathroom,”
“Arasso hyung,” Howon replies obediently, immediately getting up and off the floor, heading into his shared room with Sungjong and Sungyeol to wake them up. Sunggyu hums under his breath and he sets aside five glasses of orange juice and glass of milk; Sungjong’s a growing boy that needs his calcium.
He’s got the eggs frying nicely on a pan when he hears a shout coming from the maknae line’s room - minus Howon, who’s near the maknae line but not quite - and he flicks the stove off after poking the eggs with a spatula, running to the bedroom with the spatula in hand.
“What’s wrong?” he questions worriedly, sliding into the room. “Did someone fall off the bunk bed?”
“No,” Sungyeol mumbles sleepily from where he is sitting up on his top bunk. “I think it was Howon-hyung. Or Sungjong, I don’t know,”
Sunggyu glances downwards, spotting Howon squatting on the ground and clutching at his nose. It sends Sunggyu in a frantic flail before he finally puts the spatula on the drawer and kneels in front of Howon. “Did Sungjongie hit you?” he asks worriedly.
“Yeah,” Howon replies, voice muffled by his hands. Sunggyu brushes aside the dancer’s hand to inspect his nose, fingers prodding at the bridge of his nose gently, stroking Howon’s cheek apologetically when the younger hisses. “There, there you big baby,” Sunggyu soothes fondly. “It’s just bruised. Get Sungyeol off his bed and go eat. I fried up some eggs. Take the spatula with you on the way out okay?”
Howon nods, pouting in an uncharacteristic show of cuteness before he stands, the pout dropping off as he raps the side of Sungyeol’s bed to spur the younger into movement. Sungyeol clambers off his bed and they leave together, Sunggyu smiling fondly when he hears Howon grumble, “My nose isn’t the only thing that’s bruised. My ego is too,”
He misses Sungyeol’s cheeky reply in favour of pulling open a drawer and taking out a bottle of mist spray. Sunggyu heads over to where Sungjong is sleeping soundly, curled up with a teddy bear held to his chest, undisturbed.
“Sungjong-ah,” Sunggyu coos, prying the teddy bear out of the maknae’s vice grip and ducking when Sungjong throws his arm out violently to get whomever it is who’s disturbing his sweet dreams to go away.
“Sungjongie,” Sunggyu trills again, as he ducks away from more violent limbs and sprays the mist onto the maknae’s milky white skin. Sungjong grumbles, whining in protest. “Wake up Sungjongie,” Sunggyu says gently, spraying again and grinning triumphantly when Sungjong makes a noise of protest and stirs into wakefulness.
The maknae mumbles something unintelligible as he rolls onto his side to sit up. His eyes are half-open and glazed over with the remnants of his dreams as he rubs his face to rid it of the moisture. “I hate you hyung,” he slurs, glaring at the leader tiredly. Sunggyu smiles lovingly as he helps Sungjong to get down from the top bunk, gripping him tightly when the younger slips on the last rung of the ladder.
“No maknae-ah, you love me. Now go eat,” he retorts, smacking the baby of the group on the butt lightly. Sungjong grouses and retorts cheekily when he comes into full wakefulness, “No hyung, I only love your eggs,” And cackles madly, running out and shrieking at Sungyeol who’s stuffing his face with egg to not eat his share.
Sunggyu smiles fondly, a warm feeling blooming in his chest as he bends over to straighten out Howon’s blanket and tidies up the beds in the room. He’s fluffing up Sungyeol’s pillow when Myungsoo pops into the room. “Dongwoo-hyung won’t wake up,” Myungsoo says around the toothbrush in his mouth.
“Aish,” Sunggyu sighs. “Go bathe Myungsoo-ah and don’t walk around while brushing your teeth. It’s disgusting. I’ll go wake him up,”
“Sorry,” Myungsoo says, lips quirking into a slight smile as he ambles off to the bathroom. Sunggyu arranges the pillow before heading out, taking a deep breath and throwing open the door to Myungsoo and Dongwoo’s room, shouting, “JANG DONGWOO. YOU BETTER WAKE UP NOW OR I’LL BURN ALL YOUR CLOTHES!”
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“Now, you guys better be good for manager-hyung you hear me?” Sunggyu warns, helping Sungjong with his scarf. “I don’t need another phone call from him in the middle of singing practice to tell me that Sungyeol’s gone off and did this or Myungsoo’s being like this or Sungjong’s doing this again. I don’t want to hear it, got it?”
“Have some faith in us hyung!” Sungyeol pouts. “We’re good boys!” The look Sunggyu gives him tells him that the leader isn’t buying any of it and Sungyeol giggles nervously. Whoever said their leader couldn’t be scary?
“Don’t worry hyung. I promise I’ll try and be more social today,” Myungsoo reassures. “And I’ll make sure Sungjongie and Yeollie-ah are on their best behavior. Plus, Woohyun-hyung will be there too,”
Sunggyu ignores the pang in his chest when he hears his lover’s name and smiles a little. “Okay Myungsoo-ah. You do that,”
Myungsoo smiles, the smile doing justice to his handsome features as he pushes Sungyeol in the direction of the car with their waiting manager when it looked like Sungyeol was about to start arguing with Dongwoo. “Come on Sungjongie, let’s go,” he says, taking the maknae’s hand in his own. “Bye hyung, have a good practice,” he says, leaning over to kiss the leader’s cheek before Sungjong tugs him away chattering brightly.
Sunggyu has just climbed into the other car when his phone rings. Nearly dropping his bag in order to pick it up, he manages to catch his bag and shut the door at the same time, picking up the phone, a little surprised to see Woohyun’s name on the caller ID.
“Woohyun-ah?” he says in lieu of a greeting, giving their other manager a quick smile and a nod. The car drives off with a quiet purr under the manager’s experienced hands as Sunggyu turns his attention back to the person on the other end of the line. “Woohyun?” he prods, hearing Woohyun breath a little harshly through the line. “Woohyunnie, doesn’t your Star King recording start in an hour and a half? Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” he asks worriedly when he gets no response from the singer, glancing at his watch.
“Hyung,” Woohyun chokes out hoarsely. “Sunggyu,” he utters again, helplessness evident in his voice.
“Namu, Woohyun, darling, talk to me,” Sunggyu orders calmly. “You have to tell me what’s wrong for me to help you,” He waves aside the concerned look the manager shoots him with a hand and smiles reassuringly. He hears silence on the other end and Sunggyu wonders if the younger has passed out or hung up.
His musings go down the drain when Woohyun says eventually, “I’m scared Gyu,”
And the leader in Sunggyu understands what the singer is trying to say while the lover in Sunggyu just wants to get their manager to go to the SBS building right now so he can Woohyun.
“Calm down,” he chooses to say instead. “Clam down, take a deep breath, drink some water and stop pacing. Don’t panic or worry okay? You can practice your routine or something to occupy yourself,”
“Okay,” Woohyun says shakily. “Okay. Are… Are Sungjong, Myungsoo and Sungyeol on the way here?”
“They are. If there isn’t any traffic, they should be there in forty-five minutes,” Sunggyu answers. “Do you feel a little better now?”
“Yeah,” Woohyun replies, hesitating a little as though he isn’t sure what to say and Sunggyu’s heart melts because it’s rare to see his normally confident lover in such a state of distraught.
“Do you want me to keep talking to you until they come?” Sunggyu asks, reading his lover and friend well enough to know if he waited, it would take Woohyun forever to ask this of him because he doesn’t want to appear weak.
“That’d be nice, yeah,” Woohyun breathes out in relief, glad that Sunggyu understands him so well and Sunggyu spends the rest of the car trip telling Woohyun about his morning and about the members, allowing Howon to snatch the phone away ever so often to contribute, Dongwoo snoring away in the dancer’s lap.
Sunggyu is about to tell him about Howon’s accident with Sungjong this morning when Woohyun makes a noise of happiness. “Are they there already?” Sunggyu asks in surprise. “That was fast. I thought it’d take longer,”
“No,” Woohyun says happily. “Miae is here. I’m going to run through the routine with her now okay Gyu? Thanks for keeping me company. I think I can handle it now,”
“Mm,” Sunggyu says distantly. “Bye. Good luck,” he says but it’s too late because Woohyun’s hung up. Sunggyu spends the rest of the trip to their company’s building slumped in his seat. “Tell me when we reach hyung,” he mutters to their manager. “I’m going to catch some sleep,”
And Howon quietly observes all this from where he is seated up back.
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It’s nearly 11 when Sunggyu stumbles into the dorm, drained after ten hours of non-stop singing and dance practice, his throat aching and his muscles smarting. Dongwoo and Howon stumble in after him, faces drawn. They look about ready to fall asleep where they’re standing.
“Go sit down,” Sunggyu says tiredly, catching Dongwoo’s elbow when he trips over the step. “I’ll get manager-hyung to call us takeaway. Chinese sound okay?”
Howon mumbles an agreement as he falls to the floor gracelessly, Dongwoo following suit and sprawling atop Howon who complains in a string of unintelligible words. Leaving them to wrestle each other, Sunggyu steps back outside, the night air nipping at his cheeks as he lopes down the steps.
“Hyung, could you order us some takeaway?” he asks.
“I was planning on heading down to the noodle shop a couple of blocks away to get you lot dinner,” the manager says in reply. “You don’t have to go with,” he adds on when he sees how drained the leader looked.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go with you. You can’t carry all the food by yourself hyung,” Sunggyu grins, pulling out his phone. “I’ll call the other four to see what they want,”
The manager eyes Sunggyu for a moment before nodding, walking ahead with Sunggyu trailing him slowly. He raises a brow when he sees that he has a voicemail. He dials his voicemail.
‘You have one new voicemail,’
BEEP.
‘Hey Gyu!’ Woohyun says cheerfully. ‘I was wondering why you weren’t picking up before Sungjong-ah reminded me you had practice today. Did it go well? Anyways, I’m calling to tell you that you were right! When are you never,’ There’s a fond note in Woohyun’s voice. ‘The performance went well. I’ll show you when I get home so you don’t have to wait for the broadcast okay? I managed to get Sungyeol to record it for me before Miae and I had to do it in front of the cameras,’
Sunggyu smiles widely, all traces of tiredness gone when he hears that Woohyun has done well with his performance, feeling a sense of something that he can’t quite name is his stomach at the mention of Woohyun’s dance partner. He misses the rest of the voicemail because he’s too busy wondering what that feeling is and the voicemail is deleted automatically after it’s done.
“Oops,” Sunggyu says under his breath. “I should call Woohyun to find out what the rest of the voicemail was,”
He’s about to speed dial his lover when his phone beeps with a message from Woohyun. He smiles, tapping the message app to open it.
From: My Namu
Gyu~~~ I hope you got my voicemail. I wasn’t sure if practice was over or if it ran late like it does sometimes. Just messaging to tell you that I won’t be back for dinner today so don’t cook or order for me! I’m going out for Korean BBQ with Miae :D don’t wait up! You need your sleep!
That feeling comes back again with a vengeance as Sunggyu types out a short, “Okay. I received your voicemail. See you later,” with a smiley face at the end of the message because all the members know that he likes to spam his text messages with smiley faces and hearts especially when sending a message to Woohyun. He doesn’t feel like it now even as he sends off his falsely cheerful text because he doesn’t like the fact that Woohyun is off alone with Miae.
“Have you called them?” the manager asks when they reach the noodle shop. “No,” Sunggyu says. “But I think I know what they want. We don’t have to order for Woohyun. He’s eating dinner with Miae-sshi,”
“Okay,” the manager says easily. “Sunggyu-ah, just talk to Woohyun and ask him to be careful. We can’t have the fans snapping a picture of him and the girl together and creating a scandal over it,”
Sunggyu’s heart throbs at the thought of his Woohyun laughing and holding hands with that girl as he nods and murmurs an agreement to the manager’s words before heading over to the counter to place the orders.
Manager-hyung ends up paying for a meal as a reward for a job well done today, awkwardly giving Sunggyu’s shoulder an encouraging pat before grabbing the plastic bags, leaving Sunggyu to get the rest.
Summary: Or rather in which Woohyun is a clueless jerk, Sunggyu is jealous and the members are just entertained and plots.
Pairing: woogyu, myungjongyeol, dongya, OT7.
Rating: G
Notes: This turned out longer than expected so it's split into two parts :)
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It’s a quiet night he thinks as he rolls over onto his back, kicking off his blanket. Too quiet, he thinks morosely, straining to listen for any sign of life in the quiet dorm but he hears none. He sighs. Sunggyu cannot seem to fall asleep. Actually, it’s more like he doesn’t want to fall asleep. His body is tired, aching from today’s dance practice and schedule and what he really wants is to crash but doesn’t want to.
He exhales harshly, rolling off his mattress and onto the mattress right next to his. He lands face first into Woohyun’s pillow and presses his face into the downy cotton, breathing and taking in the scent of Woohyun’s shampoo and the slight hint of vanilla that Sunggyu just knows is from the younger man’s facial product and Sunggyu is hit with a sudden sense of loneliness without the younger man around to talk to him and hug him.
Feeling the need to breathe properly, Sunggyu pulls Woohyun’s pillow to his chest and hugs it, feeling a little sad. A moment later, he wakes - he fell asleep? - to the sound of the front door opening and he catches the faint sound of feet on the wooden floor and the manager saying, “Get some rest. You have to be up early tomorrow as well. Goodnight Woohyun,”
“Goodnight,” he hears Woohyun say in response, voice a quiet murmur so as to not disturb the sleeping occupants of the dorm. Sunggyu’s breath catches when he hears the whisper of Woohyun’s socks brushing against the wooden floor and he rolls back to his mattress, the pillow clutched to his chest securely, feigning sleep.
The door opens with a quiet creak and Woohyun steps in, observing the sleeping figure with a trace of amusement. “I know you’re not asleep,” he says eventually, breaking the silence that fell over the house. Sunggyu doesn’t move, continuing to feign sleep as he breathes evenly.
He opens an eye and hides a smile in the pillow when he hears the sound of Woohyun’s shirt dropping to the floor carelessly and a second later, he has a warm body pressing against his, an arm slinging carelessly on his waist, the weight welcomed as he breathes out a silent laugh that he turns into a cough.
“Stop pretending,” Woohyun scolds without any heat, his breath fanning across the leader’s cheek and sending goose bumps across the warm skin.
“I’m not,” Sunggyu mutters in reply, angling his head to look at Woohyun with half-lidded eyes. “Of course not,” Woohyun agrees with a laugh, nosing Sunggyu’s cheek. “That’s why you’re talking to me right now,”
Sunggyu smiles widely. “I’m sleep talking,” he says matter-of-factly, earning a chuckle from the younger. “Don’t laugh! It’s an unfortunate condition!”
“After two years of sharing a room with you, you suddenly start sleep talking? When did this happen?” Woohyun mocks the older playfully, pressing a careful kiss to the older singer’s jaw. Sunggyu laughs quietly, squirming and twisting to lie on his back, head touching Woohyun’s as the younger traces nonsense into the skin of his stomach.
‘When did his hand get under my shirt?’ Sunggyu wonders absently, catching hold of Woohyun’s wrist when it gets to close to a ticklish spot. “Go bathe,” Sunggyu snaps playfully. “You’re sweaty!” Pulling a face, he nudges Woohyun’s chin gently with his head and presses a nose to the younger man’s neck, inhaling. “And you smell like girl perfume,”
Woohyun picks up the trace of disgruntlement and jealousy in his lover’s voice and smile indulgently. “Okay, okay. I’ll go bathe and I’ll make sure to scrub till I’m nice and clean okay?”
He rolls off the mattress and gets up on unsteady feet before turning back and dropping to his knees to press a quick kiss to Sunggyu’s lips and running off, clean boxers in hand as he whisper-shouts, “I love you leadergyu!”
“Yah!” Sunggyu calls out after him, smiling brightly. “I love you too,” he says softly to the empty room and snuggles down, hugging the pillow tight, falling into peaceful slumber.
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Sunggyu wakes the next morning to the sound of ‘Nothing’s Over’ playing in his ear before he realizes it’s his alarm and he reaches out blindly to grab his phone and turn it off, mumbling sleepily. He sits up, yawning widely and running a hand through his hair, the other stretching to shake Woohyun awake. He frowns in confusion when it hits an empty mattress that’s cold, the heat from its sleeper gone, a sign that Woohyun had been up for a while.
‘That’s odd. Woohyun-ah never wakes up before I do,’ he thinks as he stands up and stretches, hearing a ‘pop’ in his spine that has him feeling less tense. Sunggyu shuffles out to the living room/foyer of the dorm to find Howon doing his morning stretches on the empty space in the area.
“Morning hyung,” Howon greets, bending over to touch his toes. “Morning Howon-ah,” Sunggyu replies absently, looking around to see if Woohyun’s in the kitchen or something. “Where’s Woohyun?” he asks.
“He went out this morning. Manager-hyung said something about Woohyun-hyung having dance practice,”
“At 7.30 in the morning?” Sunggyu remarks, raising his brows in surprise. “Woohyun’s brain isn’t even awake at this time!”
“I think he went early to the SBS building to practice the dance with *Miae-sshi for the Star King recording today,” Howon answers, arching his back. “I think he said something about taking her out for breakfast first though,” Howon adds on, voice coming out weirdly because his head’s thrown back. Sunggyu pulls a face that the dancer misses because the younger has himself stretched out in a kneeling position with his head to the ground.
He goes into the kitchen to throw something together for the members to eat. They have a full day ahead of them and Sunggyu would rather lose three nights of sleep then have his members fulfill the schedule’s needs on an empty stomach.
“Howon-ah, finish stretching then go wake the others up,” Sunggyu calls out, popping his head out of the entrance of the kitchen whilst pouring out a glass of juice. “You know how Sungjongie and Myungsoo-yah takes forever in the bathroom,”
“Arasso hyung,” Howon replies obediently, immediately getting up and off the floor, heading into his shared room with Sungjong and Sungyeol to wake them up. Sunggyu hums under his breath and he sets aside five glasses of orange juice and glass of milk; Sungjong’s a growing boy that needs his calcium.
He’s got the eggs frying nicely on a pan when he hears a shout coming from the maknae line’s room - minus Howon, who’s near the maknae line but not quite - and he flicks the stove off after poking the eggs with a spatula, running to the bedroom with the spatula in hand.
“What’s wrong?” he questions worriedly, sliding into the room. “Did someone fall off the bunk bed?”
“No,” Sungyeol mumbles sleepily from where he is sitting up on his top bunk. “I think it was Howon-hyung. Or Sungjong, I don’t know,”
Sunggyu glances downwards, spotting Howon squatting on the ground and clutching at his nose. It sends Sunggyu in a frantic flail before he finally puts the spatula on the drawer and kneels in front of Howon. “Did Sungjongie hit you?” he asks worriedly.
“Yeah,” Howon replies, voice muffled by his hands. Sunggyu brushes aside the dancer’s hand to inspect his nose, fingers prodding at the bridge of his nose gently, stroking Howon’s cheek apologetically when the younger hisses. “There, there you big baby,” Sunggyu soothes fondly. “It’s just bruised. Get Sungyeol off his bed and go eat. I fried up some eggs. Take the spatula with you on the way out okay?”
Howon nods, pouting in an uncharacteristic show of cuteness before he stands, the pout dropping off as he raps the side of Sungyeol’s bed to spur the younger into movement. Sungyeol clambers off his bed and they leave together, Sunggyu smiling fondly when he hears Howon grumble, “My nose isn’t the only thing that’s bruised. My ego is too,”
He misses Sungyeol’s cheeky reply in favour of pulling open a drawer and taking out a bottle of mist spray. Sunggyu heads over to where Sungjong is sleeping soundly, curled up with a teddy bear held to his chest, undisturbed.
“Sungjong-ah,” Sunggyu coos, prying the teddy bear out of the maknae’s vice grip and ducking when Sungjong throws his arm out violently to get whomever it is who’s disturbing his sweet dreams to go away.
“Sungjongie,” Sunggyu trills again, as he ducks away from more violent limbs and sprays the mist onto the maknae’s milky white skin. Sungjong grumbles, whining in protest. “Wake up Sungjongie,” Sunggyu says gently, spraying again and grinning triumphantly when Sungjong makes a noise of protest and stirs into wakefulness.
The maknae mumbles something unintelligible as he rolls onto his side to sit up. His eyes are half-open and glazed over with the remnants of his dreams as he rubs his face to rid it of the moisture. “I hate you hyung,” he slurs, glaring at the leader tiredly. Sunggyu smiles lovingly as he helps Sungjong to get down from the top bunk, gripping him tightly when the younger slips on the last rung of the ladder.
“No maknae-ah, you love me. Now go eat,” he retorts, smacking the baby of the group on the butt lightly. Sungjong grouses and retorts cheekily when he comes into full wakefulness, “No hyung, I only love your eggs,” And cackles madly, running out and shrieking at Sungyeol who’s stuffing his face with egg to not eat his share.
Sunggyu smiles fondly, a warm feeling blooming in his chest as he bends over to straighten out Howon’s blanket and tidies up the beds in the room. He’s fluffing up Sungyeol’s pillow when Myungsoo pops into the room. “Dongwoo-hyung won’t wake up,” Myungsoo says around the toothbrush in his mouth.
“Aish,” Sunggyu sighs. “Go bathe Myungsoo-ah and don’t walk around while brushing your teeth. It’s disgusting. I’ll go wake him up,”
“Sorry,” Myungsoo says, lips quirking into a slight smile as he ambles off to the bathroom. Sunggyu arranges the pillow before heading out, taking a deep breath and throwing open the door to Myungsoo and Dongwoo’s room, shouting, “JANG DONGWOO. YOU BETTER WAKE UP NOW OR I’LL BURN ALL YOUR CLOTHES!”
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“Now, you guys better be good for manager-hyung you hear me?” Sunggyu warns, helping Sungjong with his scarf. “I don’t need another phone call from him in the middle of singing practice to tell me that Sungyeol’s gone off and did this or Myungsoo’s being like this or Sungjong’s doing this again. I don’t want to hear it, got it?”
“Have some faith in us hyung!” Sungyeol pouts. “We’re good boys!” The look Sunggyu gives him tells him that the leader isn’t buying any of it and Sungyeol giggles nervously. Whoever said their leader couldn’t be scary?
“Don’t worry hyung. I promise I’ll try and be more social today,” Myungsoo reassures. “And I’ll make sure Sungjongie and Yeollie-ah are on their best behavior. Plus, Woohyun-hyung will be there too,”
Sunggyu ignores the pang in his chest when he hears his lover’s name and smiles a little. “Okay Myungsoo-ah. You do that,”
Myungsoo smiles, the smile doing justice to his handsome features as he pushes Sungyeol in the direction of the car with their waiting manager when it looked like Sungyeol was about to start arguing with Dongwoo. “Come on Sungjongie, let’s go,” he says, taking the maknae’s hand in his own. “Bye hyung, have a good practice,” he says, leaning over to kiss the leader’s cheek before Sungjong tugs him away chattering brightly.
Sunggyu has just climbed into the other car when his phone rings. Nearly dropping his bag in order to pick it up, he manages to catch his bag and shut the door at the same time, picking up the phone, a little surprised to see Woohyun’s name on the caller ID.
“Woohyun-ah?” he says in lieu of a greeting, giving their other manager a quick smile and a nod. The car drives off with a quiet purr under the manager’s experienced hands as Sunggyu turns his attention back to the person on the other end of the line. “Woohyun?” he prods, hearing Woohyun breath a little harshly through the line. “Woohyunnie, doesn’t your Star King recording start in an hour and a half? Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” he asks worriedly when he gets no response from the singer, glancing at his watch.
“Hyung,” Woohyun chokes out hoarsely. “Sunggyu,” he utters again, helplessness evident in his voice.
“Namu, Woohyun, darling, talk to me,” Sunggyu orders calmly. “You have to tell me what’s wrong for me to help you,” He waves aside the concerned look the manager shoots him with a hand and smiles reassuringly. He hears silence on the other end and Sunggyu wonders if the younger has passed out or hung up.
His musings go down the drain when Woohyun says eventually, “I’m scared Gyu,”
And the leader in Sunggyu understands what the singer is trying to say while the lover in Sunggyu just wants to get their manager to go to the SBS building right now so he can Woohyun.
“Calm down,” he chooses to say instead. “Clam down, take a deep breath, drink some water and stop pacing. Don’t panic or worry okay? You can practice your routine or something to occupy yourself,”
“Okay,” Woohyun says shakily. “Okay. Are… Are Sungjong, Myungsoo and Sungyeol on the way here?”
“They are. If there isn’t any traffic, they should be there in forty-five minutes,” Sunggyu answers. “Do you feel a little better now?”
“Yeah,” Woohyun replies, hesitating a little as though he isn’t sure what to say and Sunggyu’s heart melts because it’s rare to see his normally confident lover in such a state of distraught.
“Do you want me to keep talking to you until they come?” Sunggyu asks, reading his lover and friend well enough to know if he waited, it would take Woohyun forever to ask this of him because he doesn’t want to appear weak.
“That’d be nice, yeah,” Woohyun breathes out in relief, glad that Sunggyu understands him so well and Sunggyu spends the rest of the car trip telling Woohyun about his morning and about the members, allowing Howon to snatch the phone away ever so often to contribute, Dongwoo snoring away in the dancer’s lap.
Sunggyu is about to tell him about Howon’s accident with Sungjong this morning when Woohyun makes a noise of happiness. “Are they there already?” Sunggyu asks in surprise. “That was fast. I thought it’d take longer,”
“No,” Woohyun says happily. “Miae is here. I’m going to run through the routine with her now okay Gyu? Thanks for keeping me company. I think I can handle it now,”
“Mm,” Sunggyu says distantly. “Bye. Good luck,” he says but it’s too late because Woohyun’s hung up. Sunggyu spends the rest of the trip to their company’s building slumped in his seat. “Tell me when we reach hyung,” he mutters to their manager. “I’m going to catch some sleep,”
And Howon quietly observes all this from where he is seated up back.
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It’s nearly 11 when Sunggyu stumbles into the dorm, drained after ten hours of non-stop singing and dance practice, his throat aching and his muscles smarting. Dongwoo and Howon stumble in after him, faces drawn. They look about ready to fall asleep where they’re standing.
“Go sit down,” Sunggyu says tiredly, catching Dongwoo’s elbow when he trips over the step. “I’ll get manager-hyung to call us takeaway. Chinese sound okay?”
Howon mumbles an agreement as he falls to the floor gracelessly, Dongwoo following suit and sprawling atop Howon who complains in a string of unintelligible words. Leaving them to wrestle each other, Sunggyu steps back outside, the night air nipping at his cheeks as he lopes down the steps.
“Hyung, could you order us some takeaway?” he asks.
“I was planning on heading down to the noodle shop a couple of blocks away to get you lot dinner,” the manager says in reply. “You don’t have to go with,” he adds on when he sees how drained the leader looked.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go with you. You can’t carry all the food by yourself hyung,” Sunggyu grins, pulling out his phone. “I’ll call the other four to see what they want,”
The manager eyes Sunggyu for a moment before nodding, walking ahead with Sunggyu trailing him slowly. He raises a brow when he sees that he has a voicemail. He dials his voicemail.
‘You have one new voicemail,’
BEEP.
‘Hey Gyu!’ Woohyun says cheerfully. ‘I was wondering why you weren’t picking up before Sungjong-ah reminded me you had practice today. Did it go well? Anyways, I’m calling to tell you that you were right! When are you never,’ There’s a fond note in Woohyun’s voice. ‘The performance went well. I’ll show you when I get home so you don’t have to wait for the broadcast okay? I managed to get Sungyeol to record it for me before Miae and I had to do it in front of the cameras,’
Sunggyu smiles widely, all traces of tiredness gone when he hears that Woohyun has done well with his performance, feeling a sense of something that he can’t quite name is his stomach at the mention of Woohyun’s dance partner. He misses the rest of the voicemail because he’s too busy wondering what that feeling is and the voicemail is deleted automatically after it’s done.
“Oops,” Sunggyu says under his breath. “I should call Woohyun to find out what the rest of the voicemail was,”
He’s about to speed dial his lover when his phone beeps with a message from Woohyun. He smiles, tapping the message app to open it.
From: My Namu
Gyu~~~ I hope you got my voicemail. I wasn’t sure if practice was over or if it ran late like it does sometimes. Just messaging to tell you that I won’t be back for dinner today so don’t cook or order for me! I’m going out for Korean BBQ with Miae :D don’t wait up! You need your sleep!
That feeling comes back again with a vengeance as Sunggyu types out a short, “Okay. I received your voicemail. See you later,” with a smiley face at the end of the message because all the members know that he likes to spam his text messages with smiley faces and hearts especially when sending a message to Woohyun. He doesn’t feel like it now even as he sends off his falsely cheerful text because he doesn’t like the fact that Woohyun is off alone with Miae.
“Have you called them?” the manager asks when they reach the noodle shop. “No,” Sunggyu says. “But I think I know what they want. We don’t have to order for Woohyun. He’s eating dinner with Miae-sshi,”
“Okay,” the manager says easily. “Sunggyu-ah, just talk to Woohyun and ask him to be careful. We can’t have the fans snapping a picture of him and the girl together and creating a scandal over it,”
Sunggyu’s heart throbs at the thought of his Woohyun laughing and holding hands with that girl as he nods and murmurs an agreement to the manager’s words before heading over to the counter to place the orders.
Manager-hyung ends up paying for a meal as a reward for a job well done today, awkwardly giving Sunggyu’s shoulder an encouraging pat before grabbing the plastic bags, leaving Sunggyu to get the rest.