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Everyone dropped their bags on the floor once they made it inside the dorm. They had a very busy week. They left early in the morning every day and they had to do öp hours of dance practice, they had to do recording and also had separate schedules. Even though they were all very busy, they made sure to return home all together everyday even if that meant waiting for an extra hour just so they could go home with that one member, who was mostly Seungkwan. “Who wants to have dinner?” Mingyu called out to the others as he made his way to the kitchen. And since they didn’t have dinner at the company, there were a couple of “Yeah!” and some shouts that Mingyu couldn’t understand.
Thinking everyone agrees that they should have dinner because of the loud cheers going around in the dorm, he opened the refrigerator to see if they had any ingredients. Some members rushed to the kitchen to help prepare the food so they could eat as soon as they could. After looking through the ingredients, they decided to order since no one could agree on one dish to cook. “So, what are we ordering?” asked Minghao with his phone in his hand, leaning against the kitchen door. “Pizza?” Being tired of eating pizza every time they order food, Soonyoung complained about Seokmin's idea. “We always eat pizza! We should order something else.” He loudly whined just for his mouth to be blocked by Jihoon’s hand.
“You’re loud and I didn’t sleep last night so I have a headache.” Jihoon quietly said, even his own voice was making him feel like there were people running around in his head. “And why is my loudness problem?” Soonyoung teased him, his voice was finally at a decent loudness and he was looking right into Jihoon’s eyes. “It’s a problem because you are literally laying on top of me?” Jihoon murmured softly as he caressed Soonyoung’s hair. They were laying down together on the couch, Jeonghan and Seungcheol were sitting on the other end and the other members were either in their rooms or sitting on the floor, watching the show Wonwoo put on.
Seungcheol sighed slowly as Joshua who was sitting at the armchair next to them giggled at him, knowing that arguments were the last thing Seungcheol wanted to deal with right now. “Don’t laugh!” Seungcheol said but it only caused Joshua to laugh even more at his pout. He just walked to the kitchen and called out for everyone, leaving a giggling Joshua behind him. “If you want to decide what we should have for dinner, come to the kitchen.” He quickly counted down. “3…” Some footsteps and the sound of slippers hitting the floor were heard. “2…” Junhui, Vernon, Chan and Seungkwan were already in the kitchen, pulling out their phones to look for something when they heard they were going to order food.
“1…” The rest quickly arrived at the kitchen when they heard the countdown finish. After changing their mind several times, they decided to order chicken from a place that just opened. About half an hour later, the food arrived and they quickly ate their dinner. After everyone was done, they decided on who was going to do the dishes and clean the kitchen with a little game. In the end, Seungkwan Mingyu were the ones to do the chores. So, Chan decided to join Seungcheol on the couch by throwing himself on top of him. “What are you doing?” Chan curiously asked while peeking at his phone to see what he was up to.
“Making a list of the things we need for the dorm, are you bored?” Chan nodded and buried his face in the crook of Seungcheol’s neck. He was lying next to Seungcheol but half of his body was more like on top of him, similar to the position that Jihoon and Soonyoung were in earlier. “Should we go to get some groceries and maybe some clothes together?” Seungcheol asked Chan. Chan immediately lifted up his head and looked at him with wide eyes. Seungcheol giggled at his reaction and slowly started getting up. “Go get ready. We are going to leave in five minutes.” Chan didn’t need to hear more to just sprint off to his room so he could change.
Just in five minutes they informed others that they were going out, got ready and were at the entrance of the dorm. Seungcheol peeked his head inside for the last time. “We might be a bit late, we’ll probably go to the store that opened last week to get some clothes.” Chan rolled his eyes at his “leader voice” and giggled when Seungcheol pouted because no one answered him back. “Let’s just go hyung, we have an early dance practice tomorrow. We have to be here early anyway.” Seungcheol nodded and locked the dorm door. “Wallet, here. Water bottles, here…” Chan interrupted him as he did his usual check to make sure he had everything with him.
“Is the elevator kind of slow today or I’m not seeing right, also why are you carrying two water bottles with you?” Seungcheol shrugged and got in the elevator that recently arrived. After pressing the right floor button, they watched as the elevator doors really slowly closed. “Yeah, some things are definitely wrong here.” Seungcheol quietly said to not worry Chan too much. But his efforts to not make Chan get worried failed when the lights suddenly turned off and he let out a not so quiet scream. “Hyung, what is happening?” Chan asked, he was clearly not happy with the elevator stopping all of a sudden out of nowhere. “I don’t know Channie, I'll try to press the button to open the doors.” He placed the water bottles and the bag he brought with himself and approached the elevator buttons.
Seungcheol tried to take deep breaths to keep calm as he pushed the button just to be met with nothing. The doors were closed and didn’t look like they were opening any time soon, the lights were off and they were panicking. He was quickly pulled out of his thoughts about how to get out of here when he heard Chan’s quiet sniffles and wobbly voice. “Hyung, what are we going to do now? We’re stuck, the door is not opening.” He cried out, painful sobs following his words. Seungcheol quickly pulled the younger into a hug and started to slowly caress his hair to comfort him at least a bit. “We will get out of here, okay? It’s going to be okay.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket and switched the flashlight on.
He quickly pointed the light at the direction of the button to see if there was anything to help them get out but there was none. Except the button to call the rescue service. “Hyung, can we call someone? Please, I want to get out.” Chan’s voice was barely above a whisper, all he wanted to do was to go home. Lay down and cuddle with his hyung in his warm bed instead of the cold floor of the elevator. “Our phones won’t work here. I’ll try to contact the rescue service, okay? You need to let go of me so I can reach the button, baby.” Chan’s arms slowly loosened their grip on Seungcheol and fell on his sides as Seungcheol pressed the button. Nothing happened for a minute or two, Seungcheol was waiting by the button impatiently and Chan was losing hope.
“ Hello, this is the Emergency Rescue Service. How can I help you?” A rusty voice of a man echoed in the elevator walls through a speaker looking thing placed on the ceiling. Chan felt relieved tears forming in his eyes as Seungcheol spoke to the small spot next to the button, figuring out that it is supposed to be some kind of thing to communicate with the person who’s on the other side of the line. “Hello. We are stuck in the elevator that had been going down…” Seungcheol continued to inform the man about their situation and where they were. But, Chan couldn’t hold himself up anymore, he was exhausted and couldn’t stand. He dropped to his knees and reached for the water bottle that Seungcheol brought with him here. After taking a few sips, he decided to pay attention to the call.
“ I’m very sorry but I can’t let anyone go to help you tonight. The only available time is early tomorrow morning.” A disturbing silence filled the atmosphere when the man on the other end finished his sentence. “W-what do you mean tomorrow?” Seungcheol lashed out, anger and annoyance in his voice. “ Yes, unfortunately. We have to call the legal owner of the building according to our policy and we are also not able to do anything until they allow us to since getting you out of the elevator will cause some damage to the nearby walls and mostly the floor.” Seungcheol ruffled his hair in annoyance as he laughed, it felt like it was a joke.
“So, we have to stay here tonight?” He didn’t have to wait long for the man to answer him. “ Yes, unfortunately we cannot get you out in the middle of the night with any permission, sir.” The call ended quickly after the man said that. Chan sobbed uncontrollably on the floor, holding the water bottle tightly in his hand. Seungcheol quickly rushed to his side and made the younger sit with his back against the walls of the elevator. “Hyung…” Chan called out, his voice trembling between his sobs. “Chan, It’s okay baby. We will get out of here.” Seungcheol tried his best to keep comforting the younger, but even he didn’t know how they would get out.
“I wish we paid more attention to the elevator before getting in.” Seungcheol sighed. “I even noticed that the elevator was slow, why did we even ignore that sign? We know this elevator is not that safe, it didn’t get any kind of repairs in the last couple years and we know that!” Chan managed to say between his sobs. He tried to wipe away his tears but it quickly got replaced by other tears. Seungcheol looked up and blinked a few times to send the tears back. He also didn’t want to be here but he had to be strong for Chan since the younger never really liked elevators anyway. He placed a kiss on the younger's forehead and reached to wipe the tears himself.
Not knowing what to do in this situation, he wrapped his arms tightly around the younger who had calmed down now. The inside of the elevator was cold, both of them just wanted to go somewhere else so they could be warm, under layers of blankets but all they could do was wait. Chan snuggled close to the older man and buried his face in the curve of his neck. He let out a sigh and hugged himself close to stay warm. “Get some sleep Channie, I’ll wake you up when the rescue service arrives, okay?” Chan nodded and let himself relax a bit. Seungcheol noticed that the jacket he wore before going out of the dorm fell on the floor, so he grabbed it and covered Chan as much as he could with it.
“Good night.” Chan murmured quietly. “Try to sleep as much as you can, time will go by quickly that way. I will wake you up when the rescue arrives. Good night, baby.” Seungcheol said, he placed a kiss on the younger forehead again and smiled softly. The night continued slowly and cold. Seungcheol stayed awake in case the man they talked to earlier might want to contact them about the situation while Chan slept on his shoulder, with the older’s jacket resting on top of him. Seungcheol watched as the younger's face slowly got relaxed and his breathing became normal. He knew they wouldn’t be stuck here if he listened to Chan and got out of the elevator before the doors closed on them, but it was too late now.
They were probably trapped between two different floors and the rescue service couldn’t do anything before getting permission from the owner of the building. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping to at least get some sleep before the rescue arrives since they had a long dance practice early in the morning the next day. He didn’t know if they could make it to the practice because the getting out of the elevator process might be longer than they expected. He just wished that even though no one answered him when he called out to the members to let them know that they were going to be late, they were sleeping peacefully in their beds.
The two woke up with loud bangs and weird noises coming from the other side of the elevator doors. At first, they were confused but understood what was going on when the memories of them getting trapped in the elevator flooded in their minds. “Hello?” Seungcheol shouted to maybe get the attention of the people who were trying to rescue them. His voice wasn’t heard but he left Chan holding the sleeve of his sweatshirt from behind, he turned around to look at Chan. “Hyung, did they arrive? Are we finally getting out of here?” Seungcheol smiled and shook his head up and down. He held Chan’s hand as he grabbed their stuff.
He got both of their phones, two water bottles and his jacket off the ground while a person from the rescue groups managed to get his hand through the tightly closed doors. “Hello, we are the rescue service you contacted yesterday night. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by our policy, we tried to contact the lezgi owner of the building and could only start the rescue process when the owner told us we are allowed!” The man quickly spoke as he opened the door even more, the other people behind him were quick to put something to keep the doors open when the gap was big enough to fit a person in it.
The time flew fast after that something was placed in the floor to keep the doors open as they both got out. Chan was the first one to get out of the elevator with Seungcheol helping him to reach the people who were waiting for them on the other side. The doors were not fully open, just like Seungcheol thought, they were stuck between two floors so the wall between each floor was blocking the entrance to the other side. There was a small gap on the top of the doors which the rescue people opened and made Chan get out from. The next one to get out was Seungcheol. He gave their stuff to the man who was waiting to help him on the top.
Then he was able to make it up next to Chan who was sitting on the floor with a fluffy blanket on his shoulders despite the warm weather and a snack in his hand that was given to him by the people to surpass his hunger who also gave Seungcheol the same things when he was also seated on the floor, breathing heavily. Seungcheol took a sip from the water bottle in his hands as the workers placed a warning sign next to the elevator and blocked the doors to keep anyone from entering inside of it.
He looked at Chan, who was already staring at him with joy in his eyes. “We’re out.” Chan said, excitedly. Seungcheol giggled and nodded. “Yes, we are.”
The people who helped them left very soon after making sure that they were inside their dorm safely. When those who didn’t see anyone inside the dorm, they decided to check the time. “Oh, the practice. They are probably at the company right now.” Chan’s eyes went wide open as Seungcheol quickly called the company to see if anyone could drive them there. They changed and got out of the dorm building, by using the stairs of course, when their manager agreed to let them go to the company even though there wasn’t a lot of time left before their dance practice ended. Seungcheol and Chan hurriedly got into the car and drove to the company.
“Hello?” Seungcheol called out to the crowded dance practice room, peeking out from the door but his voice was not heard because of the loud music playing in the background. The first one to notice them was Junhui, he was right in front of the members, facing the door with his back against the mirror. He stopped talking and his eyes went wide as he ran up to them. His actions were quickly followed by Seungkwan who he was talking to. “Hyung and Channie! Where were you? He looked everywhere in the dorm but there wasn’t a single note or anything like that!”
Seungkwan shouted loudly and his voice echoed in the room. “They are back?” Jeonghan asked when he heard Seungkwan’s voice, he quickly walked up to Seungcheol and Chan who were still standing in the doorway. He pulled both of them in a hug and closed the door behind them with his foot in the action. “You scared me. Where did you go?” He asked again with his arms tightly around the two bodies, holding them as close as he could to himself. Seungcheol placed a hand on Jeonghan's waist and pulled him to his side to let the other members come close to them.
After a quick moment full of questions and hugs, they all sat on the hard wooden floor as Seungcheol explained why they were late. “So, yesterday we went out to get some groceries and maybe buy some clothes. When we were getting on the elevator, we noticed it was slow but decided to ignore it. It ended up stopping between two different floors and the doors wouldn’t open again so we contacted the rescue service but they said they could only arrive the very next day, early in the morning. We spent the night in the elevator and were woken up by the noise of the rescue crew. We thought you would be here when we arrived at the dorms so we called a company car to drive us here.”
There was a moment of silence after Seungcheol’s words. The two giggled at others' consumed faces. “You… what?” Vernon asked, just looking at their faces while trying to process the information. It was funny to think that they got trapped in an elevator because they decided to ignore many many signs even though they were really scared at that moment. The room was quickly filled with the members' questions and loud noises when what happened finally clicked in their minds. Some of them were searching their bodies, looking for a scratch or something that will prove this. Others were asking a ton of the things and the last minutes of their practice ended with Chan and Seungcheol repeating the same thing for the members so they could understand.