The Truth About Leader Jaebum Part 5B
Jaebum is the leader. Being the leader means you have power and responsibility. It means you have to motivate, encourage and push your members even when you are all dead tired or feeling disheartened. Right now, Jaebum’s responsibility was to use his power to push his fellow members out of bed, though they are all disheartened after yesterday evening’s events. It was also his responsibility to ‘clean the mess he made since he likes making sure everything is nice and tidy’ - or at least that is what Taecyeon said before he refused to sleep in the same room as Jay and went to go comfort Junsu ALL night. Jaebum knew the two had been up most of the night because he could hear their hushed voices and it made him want to rip the ears right off his head. He REALLY needed to get Nichkhun back for unleashing this jealousy demon within him.
Jay woke up to a sleep scowling Chansung sprawled on the floor and a tear-stained, puffy cheeked Wooyoung on the couch. Jay gave the youngest a swift kick in the behind (much deserved for dragging poor baby Junho around like a rag doll last night) and then pinched Wooyoung’s cheeks before the ssanti dancer rolled off the couch and face-planted on the hard wooden floor.
“Yah! Get up and make some rice!”
“Wae hyung?” Chansung was rubbed his behind with one hand while inspecting Wooyoung’s face for bruising with the other.
“Punishment for being psychos last night.” Jay caught a glance at Wooyoung’s teary eyes. The man may have been overly jealous last night - which Jay could identify with - and he may be more sensitive than his ssanti nature led on - the ghost of tears being evident on his face - but Jay had to remind himself that both this man and the other on the floor were responsible for causing two of his members to cry and had caused him to go boyfriendless for a night. Those little buggers. Jay sighed. “Don’t you give me that face Woo, I know you feel bad, but you still need to make amends.” Leader-shii needed to stay strong.
“Arraso.” The duo mumbled and slowly made their way to the kitchen. Wooyoung poked at Chansung’s bum and the youngest jumped before turning back at Jaebum to scowl at him some more. Wooyoung giggled and Chansung couldn’t stay so mad, so he just pinched Wooyoung’s sore cheeks and receive a death slap on his ass before the elder scurried away into the bathroom. Boy is practice going to hell, Chansung grimaced as he tended to his sore bottom before starting on the rice.
Jay wasn’t sure what to do next. Wake up a pissed off Junho who refused to speak to him last night, a disgruntled Nichkhun who may or may not be still sleep deprived, or lastly the cried out Junsu and disappointed boyfriend…
“Nichkhun!!! Wake up!!!” He yelled in English. When all Jaebum received as a response was a sound that resembled ‘blarg’, he decided to pick the lock. Yes, after uncovering many conspiracies, Jay decided to learn how to pick locks, so that he could uncover more conspiracies - and get into the bathroom when he was having a cootie emergency. After several failed tries, Jaebum succeed in opening his bestie’s bedroom door, only to find said man lying half on the floor and half crumpled into his body snake. It was a pathetic sight to see.
“Khun?” Jay hardly recognized the Thai prince as the man turned his head to survey the intruder.
“Mehrarg!”
“Khun, dude, you gotta get up, we have practice.”
“Narfrum!”
“Seriously, I have no idea what kind of made up language you are speaking right now, as I am obviously not a member of your secret society, but you might want to remember you are also a member of 2pm and we have a collective schedule to keep.” As much as seeing his best friend in such a sad state made him feel for the man, it also made him feel quite good about himself. Silly Khun, conspiracies and cooties are two things to never mess around with where Park Jaebum is concerned! While Jay was busy feeling victorious, Nichkhun was trying very much to get himself together. He knew Jaebum well enough to know a gloat was coming on and all be damned if he was going to let Park Jaybomb gloat in his face!
I very fuzzy and groggy looking Nichkhun could be seen shuffling down the hall into the bathroom as a sullen Wooyoung exited said bathroom to join the breakfast preparations in the kitchen. Chansung would need all the help he could get. A very satisfied looking leader-shii could be seen surveying all the going-ons. Now who next…
Jay crept back in his darkened bedroom, knowing that there was nothing on the floor to trip him; no matter how upset Junho had been last night, he knew better then to mess things around in their room. Jay could just barely make out the softly rising lump in the single bed. His heart broke for the younger man, especially since he was partly to blame.
“Hey, Junho,” he gently laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder, trying to rock him awake gently. “It’s time to wake up kid.” Junho’s eyes fluttered open and he looked over at Jaebum a little surprised and older man just wanted to glomp this adorable sight.
“Can’t I have a little longer?” his voice was raspy and thick and Jaebum tried to hide his wince, he knew that Junho must have been crying for quite some time.
“We got a long day of practice ahead of us and I want you to get some food in you.” He spoke softly, hoping to soothe his (second) favorite band mate as much as he could. Junho suddenly got a defiant look on his face when they could hear Wooyoung yell at Chansung for not washing the rice first. “I won’t eat their food.” The look was so foreign on the usually easy-going face that it made Jay want to glomp him even more.
“Alright,” he sighed, the sacrifices he would make. “How about a bowl of my cereal. I’ll bring it to you myself. Just. No. Crumbs.” He frowned at the thought of more insect infestations in his room.
“Thanks Jaybummie-hyung.” He rubbed at his eyes and smiled sleepily before flopping back down into the bed with a whoosh of blankets.
Junsu awoke up to Taecyeon’s gentle nudges. The singer had gotten very little sleep as he had been up most of the night. He had spent hours crying until he had tired himself out enough to sleep. Of course, it was rather unfortunate that he had fallen asleep in his dongsaeng’s arms - especially for his neck.
Taecyeon himself had not slept at all. After trying to convince Junsu that, in fact, no, his band members did not hate him and no, Jaebum-hyung was not right about all those conspiracies and no, he did not know a word that rhymed with Nichkhun - nor did he want to know why Junsu would even ask him that; Taecyeon had spent the night missing his Bummie. At the first sound of commotion outside the bedroom, Taecyeon decided to wake Junsu up, thinking that Jay would be having enough trouble with the rest of the kids.
“Hey, hey, Junsu. You gotta get up now.” Taec gentle jostled Junsu in his arms, well, it was more of a mild shake when the singer refuse to rise. At this point Taecyeon could not feel his arm and flung Junsu forward; propelling the singer to the floor as they had been sitting on the bottom bunk of their beds. Well, that solved that problem. Junsu just missed his keyboard and landed on all fours. Taec was busy shaking his arm back to life when he heard the other man whimper does no one like me anymore?, thinking he had been injured in his airborne wake up call, Taecyeon hurried up to help the man, only to hit his head on the higher bunk and go flying onto his back.
“You always did have a natural talent for slapstick.” Nichkhun’s voice was still gruff with morning fatigue. “Don’t worry Junsu, Taecyeon is just an oaf, he still likes you, I-we all lo-like you.” Nichkhun turned and left abruptly, not waiting to see Junsu’s hopeful gaze.
Taecyeon reached forward, after slowly getting up, to pull Junsu to his feet. It was in this precarious position that Jay walked in…
Jaebum had made his way to the kitchen and prepared a bowl of cereal for Junho.
“You have me slave over this rice and you’re not even going to eat it hyung? I’m hurt!” Chansung fiend a heartbroken face and received a slap to the back of his head from the unlikely Wooyoung. The youngest gave his eldest boyfriend a curious look.
“Stop being a brat.” That remark had Wooyoung receiving loving pats on the head form their leader-shii. “Kiss up” may or may not have been muttered under the breath of the maknae, but his mouth stuffed with rice like a chipmunk storing for winter hid any evidence of back talk well.
“And it’s for Junho - he is getting breakfast in bed since I like him better than the rest of you.” And that shut up the two, who yearned for third between spoonfuls of food.
Nichkhun wobbled into the kitchen; his mane still looking rather fuzzy after a night of restless sleep and hand scratching away at his throat from his recent encounter with Junsu. He poured himself a cup of mystery coffee - no one knew how old that batch was - and made himself as comfortable as he could standing; settling by half-leaning on the counter before he finally spoke. “Taecyeon and Junsu are awake.” He took a sip of coffee and instantly regretted it. With a grimace he continued, trying to seem unfazed. “You might want to check up on them,” he directed to no one in particular. He then moved to the sink to wash out his mug and his mouth. “Man that was heinous,” he mumbled in English.
Jay made his way to Junho bowl in hand, but decided to take a detour past Taecyeon’s bedroom. The sight that met him caused him to feel a pain in his heart, squeezing and crushing him; like a vice. He knew that Taec was in no way cheating on him, but the simple act of being able to hold Junsu up made Jay yearn to be held like that - without wanting to cringe. “Make sure to get yourselves something to eat before we leave.” He ducked out of the room and continued down the hall all the meanwhile wishing he could be a better boyfriend.
Taecyeon understood Jay’s sullen tone. He knew Jay well enough to know that he felt guilty for not being able to touch, to hold, to kiss, to…Taecyeon felt guilty too, for allowing himself to be caught touching Junsu. He had tried to reframe from being physical with his band mates since Jay confession, he never wanted his boyfriend to feel less then he was. “Come on Junsu, let’s go eat. Sounds like Khun is making a fresh pot of coffee.” The singer smiled at this and nodded, starting off first to the kitchen.
“Okay Junho, eat up and then get dressed. I want you ready in less than thirty. Got it?” The younger nodded in response cutely munching away at the cereal already. Jay turned, ready to head back in the kitchen and to his boyfriend with a big breath when Junho finally piped up.
“Bummie-hyung, could you stay with me? I’ll share,” Junho held out the spoon, pushing his aegyo to its boundaries, wanting some company and the comfort his hyung could offer.
Jaebum sighed and hung his head. Besides Taecyeon’s ridiculousness, Junho’s cute behavior was his only other weakness (all conspiracies and cooties aside). “I’ll stay because you are this band appa’s favorite baby, but I’ll just grab something on the way out.” No matter how unthreatening Junho’s cooties may be, cooties are still cooties. After a few moments of silence between the chewing a slurps, Jaebum slipped into full appa mode. “So are you going to tell me why you wanted my company? I know I’m a beauty, but you seem to usually prefer the view that Chansung and Wooyoung provide…for some reason.” Junho stopped eating. He was blushing but a frown marred his face.
“They get…clingy…sometimes…over…things” Junho tried to keep it vague. They had never discussed how to tell the others, or even if they should. Junho was a terrible liar when directly confronted and couldn’t look Jay in the eye.
“Give it up Junho, we all know the three have some sort of crazy love triangle going on.” Jay said with a rueful smile, poking at Junho’s ribs playfully.
Junho looked up, eyes wide in shock (almost). “I guess we weren’t so great at hiding it after all,” he mumbled while stuffing his mouth with cereal.
“Easiest conspiracy to uncover yet,” Jay declared proudly.
“Nichkhun told you something about us, didn’t he?”
“Shut up and eat, baby.”
The rest of the morning had the boys readying themselves for their long day of practice that was ahead of them in relative silence. There was some quiet chit-chat between Junsu and Taecyeon as the singer had yet to receive an apology from Chansung and Wooyoung, Jaebum and Junho were locked away in their shared room and he was too shy in front of Nichkhun after his words of comfort - the (his) Thai prince rarely said kind words to anyone so openly. As the seven men headed out the door Taecyeon handed Jay a paper bag. The leader gave him a curious look.
“A banana, an apple and some cookies and juice. I know it’s not what you’re used to eating but I just thought you should eat something before practice.” He gave Jay one of his sweet genuine smiles, only a sliver of teeth showed and some gum. Jay swooned and felt a rush of guilt. He really needed to fight those cooties if he ever wanted to deserve a guy like Ok Taecyeon by his side.
“Thanks, umm, let’s forget about eating bananas for a while, ‘kay?” Taec nodded in agreement without knowing why, but thought better then to question his conspiracy filled boyfriend. Jaebum practically threw the offending fruit across the dorm. However, the maknae that was lagging behind caught the yellow missile and snacked on it as he made his way to the door and slipped on his shoes. Jaebum shook his head in disapproval but remained quiet. The less he thought about that sight in Junsu’s room yesterday evening, the better.
[ A/N: I had to split it into two parts due to length.]
Jay woke up to a sleep scowling Chansung sprawled on the floor and a tear-stained, puffy cheeked Wooyoung on the couch. Jay gave the youngest a swift kick in the behind (much deserved for dragging poor baby Junho around like a rag doll last night) and then pinched Wooyoung’s cheeks before the ssanti dancer rolled off the couch and face-planted on the hard wooden floor.
“Yah! Get up and make some rice!”
“Wae hyung?” Chansung was rubbed his behind with one hand while inspecting Wooyoung’s face for bruising with the other.
“Punishment for being psychos last night.” Jay caught a glance at Wooyoung’s teary eyes. The man may have been overly jealous last night - which Jay could identify with - and he may be more sensitive than his ssanti nature led on - the ghost of tears being evident on his face - but Jay had to remind himself that both this man and the other on the floor were responsible for causing two of his members to cry and had caused him to go boyfriendless for a night. Those little buggers. Jay sighed. “Don’t you give me that face Woo, I know you feel bad, but you still need to make amends.” Leader-shii needed to stay strong.
“Arraso.” The duo mumbled and slowly made their way to the kitchen. Wooyoung poked at Chansung’s bum and the youngest jumped before turning back at Jaebum to scowl at him some more. Wooyoung giggled and Chansung couldn’t stay so mad, so he just pinched Wooyoung’s sore cheeks and receive a death slap on his ass before the elder scurried away into the bathroom. Boy is practice going to hell, Chansung grimaced as he tended to his sore bottom before starting on the rice.
Jay wasn’t sure what to do next. Wake up a pissed off Junho who refused to speak to him last night, a disgruntled Nichkhun who may or may not be still sleep deprived, or lastly the cried out Junsu and disappointed boyfriend…
“Nichkhun!!! Wake up!!!” He yelled in English. When all Jaebum received as a response was a sound that resembled ‘blarg’, he decided to pick the lock. Yes, after uncovering many conspiracies, Jay decided to learn how to pick locks, so that he could uncover more conspiracies - and get into the bathroom when he was having a cootie emergency. After several failed tries, Jaebum succeed in opening his bestie’s bedroom door, only to find said man lying half on the floor and half crumpled into his body snake. It was a pathetic sight to see.
“Khun?” Jay hardly recognized the Thai prince as the man turned his head to survey the intruder.
“Mehrarg!”
“Khun, dude, you gotta get up, we have practice.”
“Narfrum!”
“Seriously, I have no idea what kind of made up language you are speaking right now, as I am obviously not a member of your secret society, but you might want to remember you are also a member of 2pm and we have a collective schedule to keep.” As much as seeing his best friend in such a sad state made him feel for the man, it also made him feel quite good about himself. Silly Khun, conspiracies and cooties are two things to never mess around with where Park Jaebum is concerned! While Jay was busy feeling victorious, Nichkhun was trying very much to get himself together. He knew Jaebum well enough to know a gloat was coming on and all be damned if he was going to let Park Jaybomb gloat in his face!
I very fuzzy and groggy looking Nichkhun could be seen shuffling down the hall into the bathroom as a sullen Wooyoung exited said bathroom to join the breakfast preparations in the kitchen. Chansung would need all the help he could get. A very satisfied looking leader-shii could be seen surveying all the going-ons. Now who next…
Jay crept back in his darkened bedroom, knowing that there was nothing on the floor to trip him; no matter how upset Junho had been last night, he knew better then to mess things around in their room. Jay could just barely make out the softly rising lump in the single bed. His heart broke for the younger man, especially since he was partly to blame.
“Hey, Junho,” he gently laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder, trying to rock him awake gently. “It’s time to wake up kid.” Junho’s eyes fluttered open and he looked over at Jaebum a little surprised and older man just wanted to glomp this adorable sight.
“Can’t I have a little longer?” his voice was raspy and thick and Jaebum tried to hide his wince, he knew that Junho must have been crying for quite some time.
“We got a long day of practice ahead of us and I want you to get some food in you.” He spoke softly, hoping to soothe his (second) favorite band mate as much as he could. Junho suddenly got a defiant look on his face when they could hear Wooyoung yell at Chansung for not washing the rice first. “I won’t eat their food.” The look was so foreign on the usually easy-going face that it made Jay want to glomp him even more.
“Alright,” he sighed, the sacrifices he would make. “How about a bowl of my cereal. I’ll bring it to you myself. Just. No. Crumbs.” He frowned at the thought of more insect infestations in his room.
“Thanks Jaybummie-hyung.” He rubbed at his eyes and smiled sleepily before flopping back down into the bed with a whoosh of blankets.
Junsu awoke up to Taecyeon’s gentle nudges. The singer had gotten very little sleep as he had been up most of the night. He had spent hours crying until he had tired himself out enough to sleep. Of course, it was rather unfortunate that he had fallen asleep in his dongsaeng’s arms - especially for his neck.
Taecyeon himself had not slept at all. After trying to convince Junsu that, in fact, no, his band members did not hate him and no, Jaebum-hyung was not right about all those conspiracies and no, he did not know a word that rhymed with Nichkhun - nor did he want to know why Junsu would even ask him that; Taecyeon had spent the night missing his Bummie. At the first sound of commotion outside the bedroom, Taecyeon decided to wake Junsu up, thinking that Jay would be having enough trouble with the rest of the kids.
“Hey, hey, Junsu. You gotta get up now.” Taec gentle jostled Junsu in his arms, well, it was more of a mild shake when the singer refuse to rise. At this point Taecyeon could not feel his arm and flung Junsu forward; propelling the singer to the floor as they had been sitting on the bottom bunk of their beds. Well, that solved that problem. Junsu just missed his keyboard and landed on all fours. Taec was busy shaking his arm back to life when he heard the other man whimper does no one like me anymore?, thinking he had been injured in his airborne wake up call, Taecyeon hurried up to help the man, only to hit his head on the higher bunk and go flying onto his back.
“You always did have a natural talent for slapstick.” Nichkhun’s voice was still gruff with morning fatigue. “Don’t worry Junsu, Taecyeon is just an oaf, he still likes you, I-we all lo-like you.” Nichkhun turned and left abruptly, not waiting to see Junsu’s hopeful gaze.
Taecyeon reached forward, after slowly getting up, to pull Junsu to his feet. It was in this precarious position that Jay walked in…
Jaebum had made his way to the kitchen and prepared a bowl of cereal for Junho.
“You have me slave over this rice and you’re not even going to eat it hyung? I’m hurt!” Chansung fiend a heartbroken face and received a slap to the back of his head from the unlikely Wooyoung. The youngest gave his eldest boyfriend a curious look.
“Stop being a brat.” That remark had Wooyoung receiving loving pats on the head form their leader-shii. “Kiss up” may or may not have been muttered under the breath of the maknae, but his mouth stuffed with rice like a chipmunk storing for winter hid any evidence of back talk well.
“And it’s for Junho - he is getting breakfast in bed since I like him better than the rest of you.” And that shut up the two, who yearned for third between spoonfuls of food.
Nichkhun wobbled into the kitchen; his mane still looking rather fuzzy after a night of restless sleep and hand scratching away at his throat from his recent encounter with Junsu. He poured himself a cup of mystery coffee - no one knew how old that batch was - and made himself as comfortable as he could standing; settling by half-leaning on the counter before he finally spoke. “Taecyeon and Junsu are awake.” He took a sip of coffee and instantly regretted it. With a grimace he continued, trying to seem unfazed. “You might want to check up on them,” he directed to no one in particular. He then moved to the sink to wash out his mug and his mouth. “Man that was heinous,” he mumbled in English.
Jay made his way to Junho bowl in hand, but decided to take a detour past Taecyeon’s bedroom. The sight that met him caused him to feel a pain in his heart, squeezing and crushing him; like a vice. He knew that Taec was in no way cheating on him, but the simple act of being able to hold Junsu up made Jay yearn to be held like that - without wanting to cringe. “Make sure to get yourselves something to eat before we leave.” He ducked out of the room and continued down the hall all the meanwhile wishing he could be a better boyfriend.
Taecyeon understood Jay’s sullen tone. He knew Jay well enough to know that he felt guilty for not being able to touch, to hold, to kiss, to…Taecyeon felt guilty too, for allowing himself to be caught touching Junsu. He had tried to reframe from being physical with his band mates since Jay confession, he never wanted his boyfriend to feel less then he was. “Come on Junsu, let’s go eat. Sounds like Khun is making a fresh pot of coffee.” The singer smiled at this and nodded, starting off first to the kitchen.
“Okay Junho, eat up and then get dressed. I want you ready in less than thirty. Got it?” The younger nodded in response cutely munching away at the cereal already. Jay turned, ready to head back in the kitchen and to his boyfriend with a big breath when Junho finally piped up.
“Bummie-hyung, could you stay with me? I’ll share,” Junho held out the spoon, pushing his aegyo to its boundaries, wanting some company and the comfort his hyung could offer.
Jaebum sighed and hung his head. Besides Taecyeon’s ridiculousness, Junho’s cute behavior was his only other weakness (all conspiracies and cooties aside). “I’ll stay because you are this band appa’s favorite baby, but I’ll just grab something on the way out.” No matter how unthreatening Junho’s cooties may be, cooties are still cooties. After a few moments of silence between the chewing a slurps, Jaebum slipped into full appa mode. “So are you going to tell me why you wanted my company? I know I’m a beauty, but you seem to usually prefer the view that Chansung and Wooyoung provide…for some reason.” Junho stopped eating. He was blushing but a frown marred his face.
“They get…clingy…sometimes…over…things” Junho tried to keep it vague. They had never discussed how to tell the others, or even if they should. Junho was a terrible liar when directly confronted and couldn’t look Jay in the eye.
“Give it up Junho, we all know the three have some sort of crazy love triangle going on.” Jay said with a rueful smile, poking at Junho’s ribs playfully.
Junho looked up, eyes wide in shock (almost). “I guess we weren’t so great at hiding it after all,” he mumbled while stuffing his mouth with cereal.
“Easiest conspiracy to uncover yet,” Jay declared proudly.
“Nichkhun told you something about us, didn’t he?”
“Shut up and eat, baby.”
The rest of the morning had the boys readying themselves for their long day of practice that was ahead of them in relative silence. There was some quiet chit-chat between Junsu and Taecyeon as the singer had yet to receive an apology from Chansung and Wooyoung, Jaebum and Junho were locked away in their shared room and he was too shy in front of Nichkhun after his words of comfort - the (his) Thai prince rarely said kind words to anyone so openly. As the seven men headed out the door Taecyeon handed Jay a paper bag. The leader gave him a curious look.
“A banana, an apple and some cookies and juice. I know it’s not what you’re used to eating but I just thought you should eat something before practice.” He gave Jay one of his sweet genuine smiles, only a sliver of teeth showed and some gum. Jay swooned and felt a rush of guilt. He really needed to fight those cooties if he ever wanted to deserve a guy like Ok Taecyeon by his side.
“Thanks, umm, let’s forget about eating bananas for a while, ‘kay?” Taec nodded in agreement without knowing why, but thought better then to question his conspiracy filled boyfriend. Jaebum practically threw the offending fruit across the dorm. However, the maknae that was lagging behind caught the yellow missile and snacked on it as he made his way to the door and slipped on his shoes. Jaebum shook his head in disapproval but remained quiet. The less he thought about that sight in Junsu’s room yesterday evening, the better.
[ A/N: I had to split it into two parts due to length.]