Chapter Text
“Changkyunnie.”
Changkyun didn’t even have to open his eyes to see who it was. He was familiar with Jeongwook’s usual nagging, almost motherly tone. He simply groaned, not moving a single inch from his position on the floor.
“You know we have a comeback to prepare for, right?” Jeongwook continued despite Changkyun’s obvious disinterest.
Changkyun just groaned again, moving so that his arm covered his closed eyes.
Usually, Changkyun was really good about listening to his older members. Unlike their mischievous maknae, Changkyun always tried his best to listen to what he was told.
However, he was tired. His entire body ached from dance practice and doing anything else but resting would only result in his complete and utter death. Changkyun was sure of it.
“Changkyun-ah, I know you’ve been practicing the choreography for hours now but at least go work on your rap maybe?”
This time, Changkyun recognised the voice to be Taehyuk, their responsible leader. Changkyun moved his arm aside at that, eyes finally fluttering open.
Right next to him, Jeongwook had squat down to properly talk to Changkyun. Behind Jeongwook was Taehyuk who stood tall, arms crossed but a kind look on his face.
“Okay, okay.” Changkyun muttered, sounding almost disheartened. He wouldn’t say that the smile on Taehyuk’s face afterwards was worth getting up for but it was nice to see.
Jeongwook ruffled Changkyun’s hair before he grabbed his hand and helped him up. Changkyun wanted to lay limp but he didn’t. Instead, he stood up obediently. He even let Taehyuk ruffle his hair next, though, by then, it was a bird’s nest.
Changkyun had always wondered why every single one of his hyungs liked messing with his hair like that.
“I don’t understand why they’re suddenly pushing for this comeback.” Changkyun ran his fingers through his hair to fix the damage his older members had done before picking up his cap from the floor and putting it on “I thought we were going to have it at the end of the year.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Byunghwa butted into the conversation, slinging his arm around Changkyun’s shoulders easily.
Changkyun simply raised an eyebrow “Did they assign a different group to have their comeback or something?”
“No. Apparently, twelve of the trainees are doing this survival show and they didn’t want our comeback to overshadow it.” Taehyuk answered for Byunghwa, that small smile gone and replaced with an almost disinterested look.
“Oh okay…” Changkyun’s face crumpled a little as if he was thinking of something. That information seemed familiar somehow but he brushed it off as having heard about it before. Instead of just dwelling on it, he moved to leave the dance studio.
Despite the fact that Changkyun moved to leave, Byunghwa continued to cling to him, something that happened often “Ah, Changkyun, are you going to practice your rap?”
Changkyun, of course, nodded “Yeah, hyung, you wanna practice with me?”
“No, Taehyuk-hyung won’t let me leave until I get this one move right.” Byunghwa waved the suggestion off, obviously not entirely delighted by the thought, before grinning at Changkyun “Are you glad this comeback isn’t like the last one?’
Though Byunghwa was right, Changkyun still couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
He had let it slip during an interview that he didn’t believe in things like fate and destiny. It was odd, apparently, especially when their group’s debut song was all about it.
‘Fall Into Place’ was an entire song about how they were connected by a string of fate and how everything that would happen to them was simply a design that would lead them to their ultimate goal which was, of course, dominating the music industry.
Despite the fact that he had helped in writing the lyrics, Changkyun thought that the idea of it was stupid. He didn’t want to believe in something like fate, mostly because it meant he couldn’t control whatever happened to him.
He liked to think that the five of them weren’t pushed together by fate, that they had chosen to stay together and persevere together and that was how they managed to get where they were now.
That aside, he didn’t exactly like this comeback either.
“I think the concept is cool.” Changkyun finally, though hesitantly, answered, shrugging a little.
Byunghwa chuckled before he removed his arm from Changkyun’s shoulders “You don’t like it.”
“It’s… cheesy.” Was Changkyun’s simple answer as he bent down to get his things from the pile it was in on the floor. There was his notebook and his hoodie and his cellphone too.
Byunghwa nodded slowly in agreement before sighing “I like it.”
“Yeah, of course you do, hyung.” Changkyun finally served it back to Byunghwa, teasing expression on his face as he smirked. Byunghwa pouted, playfully punching Changkyun.
Before Changkyun could leave, however, he was stopped by another member. Like what Byunghwa had done before, Jongyeon strode over and looped his arm around Changkyun’s shoulders.
“Where’re you headed, hyung?” Jongyeon tilted his head a little to the side, curious expression on his face.
Byunghwa chuckled at that but Changkyun simply sighed “I’m trying to go to a practice room.”
“Oh, can I tag along?” Jongyeon looked almost like a puppy the way his eyes widened as he looked at Changkyun.
In fact, because of the face, he had almost said yes. Unfortunately, Taehyuk had walked over, expression in its usual strict scowl “Jongyeonnie.”
“Tae-hyung.” Jongyeon let out a small whine but he didn’t resist when Taehyuk grabbed his hand and started pulling him over to where Jeongwook stood.
“Bye, Jongyeonnie!” Changkyun waved as the boy walked away, slightly amused and obviously teasing their maknae.
“Hyung!”
Ignoring Jongyeon’s shout of help, Changkyun placed his hoodie on before slipping his notebook and phone into the pockets.
Byunghwa seemed to not want to do anything for Jongyeon either. Changkyun couldn’t blame him. Going against Taehyuk was an endeavor and most of the members prefered not to.
Instead, he pat Changkyun’s back and walked away, smile on his face as he moved to walk over to Taehyuk “Have fun practicing by yourself, Changkyun.”
“I won’t. I’ll miss you guys.” Changkyun pouted, expression of sorrow obviously over exaggerated, before he backed out of the dance studio, determined to find an empty practice room to hole himself in.
As he exited, he heard loud music at the end of the hallway. He let the dance studio’s door close behind him as he stared at the door down the hall. He knew it was another dance studio but he didn’t know who was practicing there.
Changkyun knew it was impossible that it was another group seriously practicing their songs. After all, Nu’bility was the only group that was scheduled to have a comeback anytime soon.
Most likely, it was just another group messing around.
A feeling of curiosity tugged at Changkyun and, for an odd reason, he had the desire to find out who was there. He had always been like that. His members had joked before that, if he didn’t reign in his curiosity, it would get the best of him one day.
Shaking the feeling off, Changkyun sighed before trekking to the opposite end of the hallway, searching for a practice room.