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9th place goes to Han Yujin.
Junhyeon can't even bring himself to be mad. Deep down, he already knew his rank had fallen too far to make a comeback. Sixteenth place was already far down, a miracle needed for him to make it to the top nine. He had touched it once, had gotten so close at tenth, only to fall back down and crash all over again.
People are cheering and clapping for Yujin as he stares at the cameras in awe and shock, hand over his mouth as happy tears prick at the corners of his eyes. Junhyeon forces his feet to move, reaching up to hug Yujin as well, but he's more terrified than anything for the boy. Too young for a stressful show like this, much less the industry they were in. He gave a couple of pats to the future maknae of the group (which, by the way, Junhyeon thought had a shitty name) before letting him go to walk up toward the spot where he earned it, his footsteps silenced by the eruption of cheers from the audience around them.
Everything is starting to become a blur after that. Minhyun is making some more announcements with the group, commemorating Yujin's achievements, but Junhyeon is half-lost in thought and half-despairing, trying to figure out what his future is. He knows it wouldn't be horrible; his company is on the nicer side and has been promoting him well, and he still had an acting career to fall back to, but his heart aches at the idea that he would eventually fade back into obscurity like he had always been. Belatedly, he questions if it's too late for him to try and apply to college.
There's a gentle tap on his shoulder, and Junhyeon turns to see Jeonghyeon of all people gesturing to him—they hadn't interacted much since the dual position battle, but Junhyeon still considered himself close to him regardless. Jeonghyeon's eyes are shimmering with resigned tears, but there's a mischievous grin on his face, and he jerks a thumb back toward the eliminated contestants section where a whole bunch of the trainees had returned to watch the finale one last time.
Junhyeon squints in the vague direction Jeonghyeon is pointing at, eyes widening when he sees Seunghwan of all people waving toward him, small enough that the cameras aren't trained on him. Minhyun's still going on about the group and its future, but all of that is drowned out now as Junhyeon focuses on Seunghwan. He's moving his hands, trying to articulate words from plenty of meters away that won't be too loud to the point where they would get reprimanded for not paying attention. Thankfully, with Yujin halfway through his thankful speech and Jay preparing to make his tenth place one, there's no one focusing on Junhyeon right now.
Seunghwan continues to try, and when he sees that Junhyeon is still not understanding a thing, he throws his hands up in the air in defeat and proceeds to tap Jianyu next to him to hand him a piece of paper (which Junhyeon questions how Jianyu even had one in the first place) and then he unfurls the crumpled sheet to reveal thinly-written, haphazardly scrawled Korean.
DO YOU WANNA RUN AWAY?
Junhyeon gapes at the sign, and then glances back at Jeonghyeon, who winks at him in return. He had definitely been in on this, most likely planning it during the little free time they had between training for the finale songs and whatnot. Junhyeon doesn't know what to think. Ensuring that he can't be caught on Jay's mic, he whispers to Jeonghyeon. "What does he mean, 'run away?'"
"Simple," Jeonghyeon replies. "You, me, Seunghwan, Jianyu, out of here as soon as we can. The minute the cameras are done filming, we run."
"Literally!?" Junhyeon's eyes widened. "Where are we even going?"
"Well, we gotta get back to Wakeone first," Jeonghyeon started, "so we can pick up all of our luggage that Taerae smuggled from the dorm this morning. And then we just go."
"Taerae's a part of this too!?" Junhyeon glances back toward the top 9, where Taerae is sitting at sixth. Taerae's eyes dart in his direction, and he also winks, though the cameras don't catch it as they're still on Jay's extremely-prolonged speech (he's starting to suspect Jay was a part of this, too.) "How long have you guys been planning this for?"
"Like two days," Jeonghyeon shrugs. "Anyways, you down? You don't have to if you don't want to. But Seunghwan and Jianyu and I are dipping as soon as we can."
Junhyeon ponders. "Won't we get chased by security?"
"Yeah, but it's more fun to do that rather than just stay and have to be formal all the time," Jeonghyeon replies. "Don't think you can do it?"
Sure enough, that riles up Junhyeon's competitive spirit, and he glances one last time at the top nine chairs. Realistically, he should be respectful and stay till the very end. But a lingering tinge of bitterness stuck in his throat, knowing he's not up there, an urge to stick up the middle finger (which he learned from Jay) toward the producers, the show, the people that painted him as a funny guy and nothing more—it's tempting. Too tempting, in fact, to the point where he's actually willing to do it.
Seunghwan is still staring in his direction, and Jianyu is leaning on his shoulder, slightly spacing out but also gazing toward Junhyeon. The sign is already gone, stashed safely back in one of their blazers, but Seunghwan is still eagerly waiting for his response. Junhyeon gives a subtle thumbs-up, low toward the ground to be covered by the seat from the camera angle, and Seunghwan's face breaks out into a grin at the sight.
Junhyeon turns back around, noticing that Jay had quickly glanced in his direction before rapidly finishing up his speech—he definitely had been buying time. Minhyun goes back to give some closing remarks, the cameras on him, and Junhyeon notices Seunghwan point toward the nearest exit, a couple of security guards lingering about but mostly focused more on keeping the crowd from overrunning the trainees rather than keeping the trainees from escaping.
The rest of the ceremony goes by in a blur, and before Junhyeon knows it, Jeonghyeon's tapping his shoulder again, pointing toward the camera for the livestream. "It's about to go down," he whispers, and there's a familiar smirk on his face.
Sure enough, the cameras go down, and the crowd is cheering and going wild as the top nine immediately surround each other in a tight hug, happy to have finally made it through. The eliminated trainees are already getting up to move around the rest of the finalized group, and the crowd shuffling around is enough for Junhyeon to move, locking eyes with Seunghwan as he gets up from his own seat to nudge his head toward the planned exit.
Next thing Junhyeon knows, Keita is shouting at the top of his lungs, being lifted onto Kamden's shoulders as the latter starts parading him in the opposite direction of where Junhyeon is, causing enough of a commotion for Jeonghyeon to grab Junhyeon's wrist and start haphazardly running through the overturned chairs, letting go temporarily to easily jump the fence that separated the top eighteen from everyone else. Junhyeon manages to scramble over it as well, and then he's next to Seunghwan, who looks a little too excited to get out of the venue.
"Hi Junhyeon!" He's laughing as he rushes toward the stadium exit.
"Seunghwan, what the hell?" Junhyeon manages to push open the doors, the outside surprisingly empty as the four of them make it into the dark hallway outside of the stadium. With the thundering rumble of the crowd above them cheering and threatening to collapse the entire place, Junhyeon starts to wonder if he made the right call.
"Where next?" Jeonghyeon is breathing heavily, glancing around. "There's probably huge crowds around the stadium; there's no way we're gonna get out safely like this."
"Don't worry," Seunghwan reassures, wrapping up a flier of what seemed to be his own face and stuffing it into his blazer pocket. "Jianyu already called our ride."
Jianyu is speaking in Chinese rapidly, phone held to his ear, and Junhyeon bites his lip anxiously. By now, people would've definitely noticed that four of them had just disappeared out of nowhere. With every passing second he debates going back in and not running away, but he knows that there's no actual way to get back in without getting called out for leaving in the first place. Ah, fuck. Might as well see this through to the end.
Luckily, Jianyu closes his phone quickly, nodding toward Seunghwan. "Ride's here."
"Let's go!" Seunghwan starts sprinting, and Junhyeon kicks up his feet, blazer constricting his arms as he follows Seunghwan around the large berth of the stadium and toward an obscure staircase hidden by the shadows of rooftops nearby. Junhyeon notices that the four of them all are from the GGANG team, the dual position battle seeming like a lifetime away now that he could reflect on it. He hates that song still, and he would prefer not to listen to it ever again, but he can't forget the memories he made—how Seunghwan quickly took charge to help motivate the team, how he volunteered for main dancer and everyone had accepted it readily as if it were natural—he realizes deep down, he misses the team a lot.
Seunghwan pushes open a set of glass doors, and sure enough there's a sleek black car, inconspicuous enough to pass off as another ordinary vehicle. The window rolls down to reveal Wumuti of all people, blonde hair glistening in the moonlight, also wearing the blazer from watching the performance. Junhyeon stares at him in disbelief. "When the hell did you leave?"
"Halfway through Gyuvin's speech," Wumuti laughs. "Said I had to use the restroom. What are they gonna do to me anyway? I'm already gone."
Jeonghyeon pulls open the door as Seunghwan slips into shotgun, climbing in first. Junhyeon ends up sandwiched between a grinning Jeonghyeon and a constantly-giggling Jianyu, the latter closing the door as Wumuti suddenly hits the accelerator and starts moving away from the stadium and the cheers, headlights on as they take the back roads away from the main city.
Now safely in the car away from the prospect of getting caught, Junhyeon can catch his breath now, and he glances over at both Jeonghyeon and Jianyu, incredulous. "This is going to end our careers."
"Can't end a career when I don't even have one," Seunghwan jokes.
"Don't say that," Jianyu protests. "There's a reason why we're all doing this in the first place, anyway. You're the one that made the idea in the first place!"
"What idea?" Junhyeon asks. "Can you guys stop leaving me out of the loop?"
"My bad," Jeonghyeon apologizes, though he's still grinning. "Basically, there's a reason why it's been us GGANG members involved in this plan and no one else. Seunghwan misses us too much, and Jianyu really wants to become an idol, and Wumuti has production services. So we're literally just going off to become the next Super M or something."
"Like a collaboration?" Junhyeon raises his eyebrows. "But our companies—"
"Fuck Wakeone!" Jeonghyeon shouts, cheering as he pumps a fist in the air only to slam it harshly against the ceiling of the car. Jianyu laughs as Jeonghyeon winces, a mirror to the same thing that happened between them back when they were rehearsing for the battle. "They're going to be too busy managing ZB1—man, I hate that name, they should've stuck with Bep1er—so the rest of us are going to be in the dungeon for eternity! So we're out of here."
"You're going to break your contract?" Junhyeon can’t help but worry. "Isn't that dangerous?"
"I can worry about that later," Jeonghyeon reassures, even though it does nothing to stop the increasing concern in Junhyeon's gut. Is everyone delusional?
"What about you, Jianyu?" Junhyeon decides to focus on the singular non-Korean member of their original group.
"Being an idol has always been my dream," Jianyu starts slowly, searching for the right Korean words in his head. "My company doesn't mind, actually. I'm already making a lot of money as a model for them, so it works out either way."
"And I'm an individual trainee, so cheers to me for finding something to do!" Seunghwan pumps a fist into the air, taking more caution than Jeonghyeon does. "So with that, we're picking up our stuff, and then we're heading... elsewhere, I guess."
"We're going to get into so much trouble," Junhyeon mutters.
"Yeah, but don't you just want to stick a middle finger to the sky and say 'fuck the industry'?" Jeonghyeon's grin is that of a lunatic. "Even if it's just for a while."
Junhyeon has to admit—the idea is hella tempting. He has nothing against the competition, it was bound to happen, but the mistreatment, the uncertainty of the future, everything—it stirs something in his stomach that he can't quite push down. Something angry. Something rebellious.
The car comes to a stop, and through the tinted windows Junhyeon notices they've arrived at the backside of the Wakeone building. Wumuti steps out first, and Seunghwan moves to stop the other three in the back from climbing out as well. "Don't go yet. There's cameras everywhere."
"Won't Wumuti stick out?" Junhyeon asks.
"Yeah, but he's not the one running away seriously," Seunghwan laughs, and then after five minutes of silence the back doors swing open again to reveal Mun Junghyun of all people, carrying the familiar luggages of Junhyeon and Jeonghyeon. Wumuti is right behind him, though his face is dripping with sweat.
"Junghyun!" Jianyu cries out excitedly, and Junhyeon only gapes as Junghyun clambers in as if there were even room for everyone in the backseats. Jeonghyeon cries out in pain as Junghyun's gangly arms and legs maneuver around him before the maknae of their little group ends up situating himself on Junhyeon's lap, pressing the seatbelt uncomfortably close to his chest.
Wumuti finishes putting away the luggages in the trunk behind them (which Junhyeon is considering throwing Junghyun onto) and then he closes the backseat door before hopping into the driver's seat, face filled with mild panic. "They're looking for us."
"Just hit the gas!" Seunghwan reassures him as if there's nothing wrong.
"I told you we'd get in trouble!" Junhyeon protests as he tries to peer around Junghyun's torso. "Junghyun, you fucking—"
He doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence, because Wumuti does exactly what Seunghwan says and slams the accelerator, causing Junhyeon to slam his head against the headrest as their car speeds off into the night, a terrified shout escaping Jeonghyeon while Junghyun merely cheered (how the youngest could stay so calm, Junhyeon had no idea.) Jianyu is already on his phone, calling more people in Chinese, and the chaos is making Junhyeon nervous—he thought he was the wild one, but when the other four were putting themselves to it, they easily outmatched him.
"Wumuti, I thought you were reasonable!" Junhyeon screeches over the excited shouts of Junghyun. "Why did you agree to this!?"
"I think you should be asking yourself that," Wumuti laughs. "Where to, guys?"
"The beach!" Junghyun shouts with excitement, practically bouncing off of Junhyeon's lap. "No one's gonna catch us there!"
"Is it even safe?" Jeonghyeon questions (thank god. Junhyeon was worried he was going to be the only sensible one in the car.)
"Fuck Wakeone!" Junghyun screams back, and Jeonghyeon grins as if they just had the most enlightening conversation in the world. Junhyeon is really starting to wish he stayed back now.
The ride seems to go surprisingly smooth after that, Jianyu hanging up after a while and announcing that he managed to get most people off of their tail (how he even managed that, Junhyeon doesn't want to know.) Junghyun finally quiets down, though he's still humming in excitement, and Jeonghyeon is in a state of being half-mildly terrified and half-excited. From where Junhyeon can see from around Junghyun's waist, they've made it quite far from the stadium, the cars rapidly decreasing in number until Wumuti pulls up at some lone beach, dead in the middle of the night with the usual warning signs posted around the perimeter.
Seunghwan climbs out first, peering around before nodding encouragingly to the rest of the group. "It's clear!"
"Finally," Junhyeon mumbles to himself as the doors open and Jeonghyeon and Jianyu both climb out, Junghyun clambering after them and Junhyeon managing to stretch his legs at last. In the distance, the city twinkled with numerous lights, the stadium far away now. Wumuti was still in the car, already texting away. "I have a ride out, don't worry."
Junhyeon could only nod at the statement and close the door before he stepped toward the rest of the group. Junghyun fished out a couple of flashlights seemingly out of nowhere, handing them to each person before they all flicked on, the bright light illuminating the rest of the mostly-dark beach. Junhyeon desperately wanted to take his shoes off, but he knew it would be too risky to go barefoot. "So uh... we're here now."
"Are you okay, Junhyeon?" Junghyun speaks up first, concern in his expression as all of his previous excitement fizzles out. "I know this meant a lot to you, so..."
There it is, the very question that causes Junhyeon to finally crack as tears that he thought had dried up welled up one more time, hands angrily coming up to wipe at his cheeks as he cried. To his surprise, the first one to move to hug him is Jianyu, the older man silent but understanding as he wraps an arm around him. The rest of the group comes to surround him as he cries.
"I wanted to go farther," Junhyeon mumbles. "I wanted to debut. Show that I proved myself. I thought I made it, but I was too far. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."
"Everyone wants to debut," Jeonghyeon murmurs sympathetically. "I wanted my name to be called, too. But even though it hurts, you can't deny all the progress we've made."
"That's right," Seunghwan chimes in. "I was convinced it was my last chance to debut, but being on the show helped me realize there were people cheering me no matter what I'd do. There are people out there that love you, and you did prove yourself! You got to sing!"
"Barely," Junhyeon mumbles. "I could've been leader, or main vocal, or..."
"You did well," Jianyu replies with his slow Korean. "And you're young; you have plenty of time to try again." He winces at the last statement, as if reminded about his age.
"You're not too old," Seunghwan reassures, patting Jianyu's back.
Junhyeon continues to cry, but here, wrapped in the arms of all the people that had taken him seriously, treated him well, saw him for his talents and not just what he could make up on the spot, it's cathartic. He lets his body take over, choking out tears as he grieves the lost opportunity, the way all of his close friends had made it up there except for him. All four of them are there for him, and Junhyeon has never felt more comforted in his life.
"Thank you guys," he sobs. "Really. I don't think things would ever be the same without you guys."
"The power of GGANG team," Junghyun laughs, and Jianyu starts doing their familiar Korean chipmunk chant, which makes Jeonghyeon and even Junhyeon crack a smile. Seunghwan manages to finally pull them all apart as they all stand in a circle facing each other, flashlights still illuminating each other, faces wet with tears and smiles on their faces.
"I love you guys," Seunghwan breathes. "I think I should tell you guys that. I'm glad I got to see you guys all together again."
"Are we getting sappy now?" Jeonghyeon rolls his eyes, but it's fond. "Alright our so-called leader, we love you too. Or at least, I do—"
"Hey, don't discredit us," Junghyun snaps, though there's no real anger in his voice. "We're all in this together."
"Did you just watch High School Musical?" Jeonghyeon spits back, and then they're arguing, though most of it is filled with laughter. Jianyu watches with a wide smile like a proud father. Seunghwan is laughing, and Junhyeon manages to stare out toward the ocean waves, the rest of the city a distant speck, so far away.
"Let's do our chant," he decides, which catches everyone's attention.
"Woah, Kum Junhyeon, wanting to actually do our chant?" Seunghwan teases, and Junhyeon slaps him half-heartedly in response.
Jianyu, of course, is the most excited to do it, and he places his hand down in the middle of the circle first. The rest of the group follows, Junhyeon immediately going next while Junghyun and Jeonghyeon follow, and Seunghwan finishes the group on top, his hand a comforting weight on top of everyone else's hand. "Jianyu, try not to hit Junhyeon in the face this time."
"I won't," Jianyu promises, though there's a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Hanguk daramjwi, hanguk hanguk daramjwi!" All of them cheer as they lower their hands to the beat before raising them high with a cheer. Jianyu, being his usual self, moves his hand to lightly bop Junhyeon on the nose this time, and Junhyeon raises a fist instinctively. "Yah! Chen Jianyu! What did I just say!?"
Jianyu only laughs in reply as Junhyeon playfully hits him in the shoulder, and then Seunghwan's pulling them all in a tight hug. Junhyeon knows that their moment can't last forever, that all of their wishes and angry shouts were mostly powerless against the industry itself, but with the prospect of being with the GGANG team again, hanging out with them this one more time, he finally felt like he was truly at home. And he was.