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Daehyun is perceptive.
Everyone says that.
It’s the little detail Mr. Park always says is so fun about him.
(Mr. Park barely knows them.)
Daehyun is an idol. He gets to sing and do a lot of cool things kids his age don’t. Like sleep at weird times or dye his hair blonde. Mr. Park runs High Class Entertainment, and he’s Daehyun’s boss.
(He’s his boss. Not an uncle. Mr. Park pretends he’s like an uncle, but Daehyun isn’t quite sure what to make of that.)
Daehyun is pretty sure Mr. Park is closest to Dongho hyung or Jaewon hyung. He always wants to talk to Jaewon, and it can’t just be about scandals. That’s boring.
(It can just be. Given the way Jaewon hyung hides a fidget when he walks to that office at the top floor. Or the way he’s so quiet when he comes back. It can just be. And it can be pretty bad.)
Mr. Park calls MAYHEM his greatest asset. Daehyun is sure Mr. Park will take care of them.
(Assets are objects. Tools.)
He likes him, but he doesn’t get Dongho hyung.
(He doesn’t want to. Daehyun is scared to.)
Dongho hyung is a wall. Stoic and above his childish concerns. A smooth impenetrable expanse of perfection.
(No, he’s not. Dongho hyung is a human being like he is and-)
Daehyun sometimes wonders what goes on in his head, so mature and in control. His expression doesn’t ever slip, like a character on a screen.
(Yes, in control. What? With the way Dongho hyung’s hands shake when he thinks he’s alone? The way he pretends his flinches are disgust when his eyes tell a different story? The makeup in the trash bin?)
Daehyun always thinks he can’t understand the world of the grown ups. Dongho hyung is basically an adult.
(He’s nineteen? An adult? In the eyes of the law and nothing else. He’s only four years older than Daehyun.)
Daehyun worries that he works too hard, that the bags under his eyes are a little too dark. Well, they’re idols! He shouldn’t worry too much! He has dark circles too.
(Yeah, they are idols. That’s exactly why he should worry. )
Daehyun is pretty sure Dongho hyung tries to look out for him, so the least he could do is be a good dongsaeng.
(He’s not a good dongsaeng. He isn’t willing to look deep enough to be that.)
”Hi Minsoo hyung! How was your day?” He beams. What he gets back is an unimpressed glower.
”Fine.”
(Minsoo hyung is their leader. He scares Daehyun, a little.)
”You were out with your friends, right?” Daehyun keeps trying. Minsoo hyung snaps at him this time.
”What’s it to you?”
(His friends are weird. They’re mean, bullies really, and Minsoo hyung is less kind after he’s been with them. He has a lot of guesses about the kinds of things he does with them. None of them are good.)
”Nothing! Just curious!” Daehyun laughs, trying to keep the mood light. He’s probably failing.
”They’re my friends, Daehyun,” Minsoo hyung scolds.
(He knows he shouldn’t judge other people’s friends. But they make Minsoo hyung into something he wasn’t, once. What happened to that energy-ball hyung he’d thought would be his best friend in the group?)
”I know! You’re my friend too, you know that?”
”Sure.”
(Daehyun rolls with the punches. Right?)
”Wanna hang out? Play a game?”
Minsoo hyung walks away.
”We have practice to do.”
(“Rolls with the punches.” That’s another word for it.)
Ahn Jaewon. Nose always in a book. Funny thing when he has girlfriends and detentions and bruises from fights Daehyun never sees.
(It’s obvious what’s going on. That there’s a mistake. That Jaewon hyung just... isn’t. Something is wrong there and fame doesn’t change people like that.)
He doesn’t talk to them much, but he’s always polite if they prompt him. Daehyun and Minsoo hyung have to do the poking, if Minsoo hyung is even in a good mood. Dongho hyung and Jaewon hyung are... awkward together, to say the least. Jaewon seems to have his life outside of them, and prefer that one.
(Is that why he refuses to admit that he knows that Wyld is a lie? Because Jaewon hyung wouldn’t want him involved?)
He wonders how much of what he sees is posturing. An act.
(Please? Jaewon hyung, who is so kind, so peaceful and works so hard that it hurts him? A troublemaker? What the act is? That’s defined and clear cut.)
He knows there’s lies. He can feel Jaewon hyung is suffering.
(Knowing is not everything. Knowledge unused is not power.)
He’s just a kid. He’s just a kid watching through soundproof glass.
(Daehyun, you put it there.)
After all, what can he really do?
(Tell the truth? Support him? Free him? He can do everything and he sits on that power. It’s a nauseating thought.)
With Minyoung? His silence weighs oh so heavy on his tongue.
(What a traitor he is.)
He has eyes. He can so clearly see the pointed fingers, the malicious snickers. He keeps his mouth shut. It would hurt her more to know, right? Daehyun couldn’t just tell her what people said. It’s not ignorance if it’s protection.
(It would hurt her most to know you said nothing.)
Daehyun knows that she’s more than her image. Isn’t that enough?
(Daehyun knows a lot of things. Is it ever?)
Daehyun decides not to see the strings, the shaking hands and gestures with no good intent. It would hurt the other people to point them out, wouldn’t it? He could be mistaken with Dongho hyung, offensive to Minsoo hyung, he could ruin Jaewon hyung’s life. He could hurt Minyoung instead of protect her. Saying nothing suits them all better.
(That is a total lie. Everything crumbles around him but if he paints the walls he can forget that it’s cracked.)
So he he chooses not to look deeply.
(Daehyun is perceptive. Everyone says that.)