Work Text:
“Hey, Jeongin-ah, it’s time for dinner.” Hyunjin calls, head peeking into the dark room. Jeongin startles, moving his phone screen away and Hyunjin grins cheekily. “Watching porn?” Jeongin can feel his face flush. “What? No-“ Before he can finish Hyunjin had already skipped away shouting. “Our baby has grown up!” Jeongin rolled his eyes and closed his phone, shouting back, “Yes I have but not in THAT way.”
Or at least he thought he had turned his phone off. But, the video continued to play. The video titled, ‘Why Yang Jeongin, I.N, is the worst member of Stray Kids.’
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As the members sat down to eat, Chan and Seungmin not included as they were finishing something up in the studio as usual with Seungmin’s solo song coming up. Felix had made dinner again, it tasted great as always. But Jeongin couldn’t help but think about how many calories was in it.
“Huh?”
Fuck. He said that out loud. He looked up to the concerned eyes of Felix. “Hm?” He responded, playing dumb as he shoved a mouthful of food in. Hopefully he would let it go. Felix narrowed his eyes at him, before looking away, concern clear. “Nothing, thought you said something.” Jeongin let out a sigh, shoulders dropping before thinking about how that gesture could look. He looked up to see Felix and Changbin which were seated across from him weren’t looking at him, and looked around before realizing Hyunjin and Jisung were looking straight at him, he felt small under their worried gaze. It was just some calories..stop looking at me like that. He thought.
He instantly shifted his eyes back to his plate, and opted for shoving around the food with his fork.
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It was only 6pm. Chan and Seungmin had texted the group chat saying they would most likely not make it for dinner once again. And although Jeongin was excited to see what Seungmin was working on, he missed the comfort of his two hyungs around. He would be fine though, nothing far from usual. He turned on his right side, and on his left. The warm blanket over his lap was starting to make him sweat and the pillow wouldn’t stay cold. It was when he dropped his phone on his face once again that he decided to move to his desk.
“Shit.” He cursed as the hard rectangular metal came into contact with his nose for the at least 3rd time tonight. He groaned and opted for sitting up and sliding off of his bottom bunk, sliding into the desk chair onto the dark room and pressing the lamp switch. He groaned when the harsh light hit his eyes and turned it off right after. He sighed and rested his head in between his arms for a second, relaxing and letting his eyes close before opening them back up, securing his AirPods into his ears and opening up YouTube again. “Damnit.” He groaned again once he realized his video had closed automatically and he was about to find it in his search history before something caught his eye in the recommended screen.
”Why Jeongin is the worst member of Stray Kids..?” His eyes widened and he felt a pant at his chest. He knew that there was hate, I mean everybody got hate once in a while. But a whole video? It was 12 and a half minutes long as well. Every rational part of him was telling him to just click not interested. But in the end his fingers tapped the play button and he double checked to make sure the audio wasn’t leaking out.
It started off with one of those animated voices that Jeongin would hear on a lot of kpop idol compilations, like cute moments and the beginnings of dance practice reuploads. “Here are 15 reasons why Yang Jeongin, I.N, is the worst member of stray kids.” He winced. 15? “Number one,” the animated voice paused, “His voice. It has to be one of the worst voices in Stray Kids. He can’t hit any high notes, just watch this clip.” Jeongin immediately pressed the slip button, not wanting to hear whatever would come.
As he reached number 5, he decided to scroll through the comments. He smiled when he saw the first one.
Jeonginsleftdimple :who do you think you are?? imagine making a whole video based on joke clips & false facts. it’s actually sad that u put so much effort into bullying one person.
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55
Jeongin smiled as he read it. He hesitantly clicked on the replies.
Felixbrownbrownies: you gotta be joking? mans has like 0 vocal skills n can barely keep up with the other members in dance.
⬇️ ⬆️
20 12
Ouch. That one hurt. Jeongin continued to scroll through almost every single one of the 3k comments, scanning the replies as an animated voice listed off all his mistakes and imperfections in the back.
saltyminhoe : wtf is this? stays let’s get this taken down.
⬇️ ⬆️
3 5
Jeongin felt his lips turn up slightly and unconsciously clicked the like button.
⬇️ ⬆️
3 6
“Fuck.” His watch history. Was he on the stray kids account? He minimized the video and checked his profile. Whew. He wasn’t. Before he knew it, the video had ended. And Jeongin couldn’t help it as he let the next video auto play. ‘Jeongin’s worst fails!’ He but his lip and gripped his thigh as he put his head down into his arms again, listening as another automated voice began listing off everything he’s ever messed up on stage. He felt hated.
By now, he had watched at least 4 or 5 videos that were just blatantly insulting him. Calling him names, shaming his weight and height. Saying he was worthless and didn’t deserve to be in the group. And if Jeongin felt tears slip from his eyes at every mean comment he heard, he would stay silent and rub his eyes each time. As if that would erase the puffiness. He realized he had gone through all of the ones left to autoplay and quickly sat up, tapping the search bar, “Yang Jeongin…worst member…” He mumbles as he typed in, around 5 results came up, the rest being positive videos about him. He was about to click on it when he noticed the red line at the bottom of each video. He had already watched them all. The ones available to him right now.
”Then I guess I’ll just go through them again…” He muttered, his mind going blank as he clicked the first video again, ‘Why Yang Jeongin, I.N, is the worst member of Stray Kids.’ Until he heard his name being called from close by. He flinched, instinctively covering his phone screen. He would rather die than have any of his members catch him wallowing in self pity. “Watching porn?” Jeongin cold have cried in relief. He made a disgusted face at the boy, “What-no” , as he watched Hyunjin slip away shouting about how he’s all grown up. Jeongin sighed, making sure to pause his video before running after the tall boy.
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