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"I feel bad" was the first thought in Minho’s brain that morning. This of course was not a good omen for the rest of the day, but he decided to ignore this in favor of getting up and eating something. Seeing as he had Music Core today, he didn’t want to be super lethargic.
“Somebody stole my socks again!” Jeongin yelled.
“Just get more!” Felix shouted back.
“We have so many socks how can you not find any?!” Seungmin said, exasperated. "There's literally an entire bin labeled 'Random Clothes'!"
“WE DO NOT HAVE DUPLICATES OF MY LUCKY TIGER SOCKS!” Jeongin dolphin screamed back. "And I don't want to look through Felix's Elsa costume and props to find them!"
Yes, this was a typical occurrence. And if Jeongin kept this up, even lucky tiger socks can't save him from Minho’s wrath at being disturbed so early.
While eating the last of cereal, (which would surely get him in trouble with Felix, as it was his favorite cereal) Minho cooed over Soonie’s latest antics in a video provided by his mom.
Apparently the tiger socks had been found, or at least a sufficient replacement, because the bickering had now turned to who got to use the bathroom.
“NO SEUNGMIN I NEED TO HAVE PRIVACY” Felix shrieked indignantly.
“Well excuse me, I just care about my hygiene,” Seungmin gasped dramatically, causing Minho to facepalm.
“And people say you’re not dramatic,” he sighed.
“Okay fine, you can put your toothbrush away, just don’t bother me anymore after that!” Felix called.
Seungmin traipsed into the bathroom and set his toothbrush in the ugly, toothpaste-crusty mug by the sink. “By the way, your fly is open.”
“OF COURSE IT IS I AM TRYING TO SHOWER RIGHT NOW—“ Felix slammed the door.
After everyone had put on deoderant, they herded themselves out the door and to their stylists. Jeongin was informed his shirt was on backwards, t hen they were off to Music Core.
By chance, a staff member named Lily worked there, and she was quite good at planning pranks. She was a longtime manager there, and was in the perfect position to plan a prank on the unsuspecting hosts. In this case it was one host in particular, Lee Minho. As such, Jungwoo and Minju were in on it and fully happy to assist.
The first step was to contact a few other idols. BTOB was easily reached through Peniel, followed by reaching out to Yeosang and contacting ATEEZ. Then they easily convinced the other 7 Stray Kids members, and lastly The Boyz’ Juyeon to set up the prank material. The staff’s part was easy, seeing as Lily herself was in charge, so they soon had everything prepared.
When Stray Kids arrived at Music Core, Minho was whisked away to the dress rehearsal of the next episode.
The group they were interviewing today was P1Harmony with their new song Doom Du Doom. Said idols were wandering around the stage, knocking over props in their wake. After the third time Jeongseob slipped in confetti, they were all marshaled over to the chairs in the corner so that “they could finish their promotions without suffering further injury”.
Meanwhile, Han was doing a poor poker face. “You guys are definitely up to something,” Minho said, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Why would you say that?”
“It’s quite obvious.” Minho rolled his eyes, “I practically raised you, it’s a paternal instinct.” He said, grinning as Felix dragged his twin away, hissing between his teeth, “You’re giving it away!”
Minho was ushered onstage with Jungwoo and Minju, along with P1Harmony who had promised not to eat the balloons. (This promise was unnessary, in fact it made Minho more worried to know that they had this urge in the first place. But at least they were repressing it. And he thought Stray Kids was weird.)
Jungwoo started off introductions. “Hi, it’s your cutie from Music Core, Jungwoo!”
“Annyeonghaseyo, it’s Music Core’s Minju!”
Just as Minho opened his mouth to introduce himself, he was cut off by P1Harmony, Jungwoo, and Minju yelling "I KNOW, YOU KNOW, WE KNOW, LEE KNOW!"
It further escalated by BTOB leaping out from behind the curtain, blowing party blowers and saying "SURPRISE!" (Minho recognized this as what he had said in their anniversary Vlive, and felt rather proud it had caught on so quickly.)
"What are you doing here!?" Minho asked. Suddenly aware that the cameras were rolling, he ignored the other energetic idols (as best he could) and quickly read the cue cards.
"Anyway, getting back on track, we were talking about 'We're betraying Minhyuk: Minho is the true visual king!'. Wait what??"
Apparently everyone else knew what was going on. From backstage, the rest of Stray Kids yelled "Keep reading them!"
Minho skimmed over the rest of his lines. They didn't seem MC related at all. "From ATEEZ: If you ever get lonely now that you only live with 3 other people, we'll move in!"
Soul clapped wildly. "Read them all!" Peniel said, and this was quickly taken up by Changbin, Han, Keeho, and Eunkwang chanting "Read it! Read it! Read it!"
Minho read the next one. "From The Boyz's Juyeon: When dancing Tiger Inside, I was distracted by your outstanding dancing!"
Another round of cheering. Jiung and Seungmin were throwing handfuls of confetti with no regard for where they landed.
Coughing on the glitter, Minho read the next line with watery eyes. "From the Staff: The makeup noonas saw you bare-faced and you're still handsome!"
"It's true!" Hyunjin yelled.
"From your fellow hosts: Thank you for being an amazing MC every episode!" Jungwoo nodded vigorously and Minju looked as though she was thinking "This is not what they said would happen in the briefing."
"And from Stray Kids: We love our butt hunter!"
"Who wrote these??" Changsub asked to no one in particular. Intak had his head in his hands, because cringe.
Minho himself was incredibly confused. "Did you just get random people to give me compliments?"
"Basically, yes!" Chan said.
"But why?"
"Because we knew you had a stressful week and we wanted you to relax with some people saying nice things about you!" Han said.
Well actually, all of this noise was giving Minho a bit of a headache, but he supposed it was the thought that counts.
"Wait! We didn't say our part yet!" Theo called.
There was a split second of silence while P1Harmony took a deep breath, then yelled, "And if anyone messes with Lee Know, he'll tell us and they will be Doom Du Doomed!"
Jiung clearly had no idea they were going to say this and tried to cover his confusion by throwing confetti that hit Minhyuk in the face. Jeongseob was probably regretting this entire day and look rather grossed out at his hyungs' terrible puns.
"OKAY!" Everyone turned to see what Minho had to say. "First of all, thank you. I felt bad when I woke up, and this made me feel better. Second, whomever thought of this prank is, to put it in Keeho's words, Doom Du Doomed."
Lily waved from behind the camera. "It was me and the staff! Don't worry, you can do the actual interview with P1Harmony after we clean up."
"GROUP HUG!!!"
It was unclear who said it, but suddenly everyone was everywhere and Minho could hardly breathe and three people were touching his butt.
"Welcome to Music Core! I'm your host Lee Know. Our special guest today came back on the 20th, please welcome P1Harmony!"
The camera panned out and the six members clapped loudly.
"So, tell us a bit about your title track, Doom Du Doom!"
When they were finally in the car going home, Minho sighed and closed his eyes. It had been a long day, but not necessarily a bad one. But he would never get the rouge glitter and confetti out of his sweater. The Random Clothes bin would be getting a new item.