Chapter Text
Legs one and two, three and four, turn five, hands six, seven and eight. Full body one and two, three and four, five, six, seven, and eight.
Dino narrates each step in his head noting every mistake no matter how small to adjust during his solo practice. He can feel sweat rolling down his back which isn’t the most ideal feeling but he’s more focused on getting the choreography right. When the song ends Dino can’t help but feel frustrated at how many mistakes he’s made. He looks in the mirror to see where he needs to loosen up and happens to spot Hoshi’s dissatisfied look.
He can tell that Hoshi feels just as disatisfied with himself but Dino can’t help but feel as if the look was targeted at him. The choreography wasn’t as hard as the ones they’ve had in the past but Dino has been getting in his head about not fitting in the group.
Recently there have been comments asking what Dino brings to the team when he won’t even act like a typical maknae. From there he went on a rabbit hole of criticisms about his looks, attitude, personality, and humor. They even started mentioning his dancing which only made his thoughts sipral. Dancing had been the one thing he thought they couldn’t criticize but they managed to find a way. They kept saying that Hoshi and the rest of the performance team were fine on their own and if he was so desperate to perform he could have just joined a dance crew by himself.
All the comments from the night before were beginning to flood his thoughts when a hand grabbed his shoulder.
“Dino take a break, Hoshi wants to talk with the choreographer about changing some of the moves before we practice again.” Jun hands him a water bottle and walks off to talk to the other members.
Dino wanted to reach out and ask why, but he was afraid of what the answer might be, so he just clenched the bottle in his hand. He figures this would be a good time to get some fresh air. It wouldn’t do him any good to fixate on comments that just want a reason to hate someone. He makes sure to tell someone he’s going out while grabbing his phone and a disguise.
Once outside, Dino makes sure there aren’t reporters or fans around before walking to a park nearby. It was late in the day with the sun beginning to set, so the park was mostly empty. He chose to sit on one of the empty swings and pushed himself, happy to have a moment to himself away from the constant chatter of his members. Don’t get him wrong he liked being around his members, they were like a second family but he felt a bit like an outcast right now.
After swinging for a while he got a call from Seungkwan telling him to head back for their last try of the day. He gets off the swing feeling better after having some time to think to himself. He’d also realized that the malicious comments he’d been reading likely weren’t genuine critiques, so it shouldn’t matter what they had to say.
He walks back into the building, waving to security while taking off his mask then doubles back to ask which practice rooms would be open. He types them on his phone and checks the schedule for the next day to see how long he can stay behind before needing to sleep. At the door of the practice room, he figures out that he’ll have an extra hour but if he manages to convince two of the members to help him out he can stay for two.
He pockets his phone as he opens the door thinking about which of his members he can bully into staying late when he vaguely hears his name being called out. Dino holds the door open and looks back into the hall but no one is there he waits for a minute when nothing happens he shrugs it off.
“Hoshi-hyung, If we’re changing the choreo I want to stay after with-” Dino stops in his tracks when four pairs of eyes look at him bewildered, “What?” He looks behind him looking for whatever else could have spooked them but there was nothing there and when he looks back they’re exchanging concerned looks.
The room turns tense and Dino is beginning to feel anxious with the lack of communication going on so he looks to Hoshi for assurance, “Hyung-”
“Ah, it looks like one of the trainees came looking for Hoshi. Sorry, we’re live right now do you mind coming back later?” Joshua cuts him off which sets off the other members to cut off the view of a phone he hadn’t noticed until now. Dino frowns noticing many strange things about the situation, so he tries to speak again only for Hoshi to interrupt him to tell the others they’ll be outside.
That’s how he ends up being led out of the practice room by Hoshi with a hesitant smile.
“Hyung what’s going on? Where are the other members-”
“Are you new around here?”
Dino was stunned for a moment before realizing that his members were probably pulling a prank.
“Hyung,” he grunts, exasperated at their antics when he just wants to figure out the choreography, “I’m not in the mood for pranks, can we just get through the revised choreo so I can work on it before going to bed.”
Then it appears like something dawned on Hoshi, his smile relaxes and he’s back in his hyperactive state.
“Is this what it is, are the other guys playing a prank on us? I should’ve known when they were so eager to leave practice earlier. Where’s the camera?”
Dino was starting to believe he might develop a perpetual frown at this rate.
“Hyung, if you wanted this to be a twelve-member group you should have said so before resigning the contract.” He moves around Hoshi to head back into the room but Hoshi seems intent on keeping the prank going.
“What do you mean? Are you adding another member? There was nothing about that in the meetings.”
“I said I’m not in the mood to be messing around!” Dino turns away from the door to yell at Hoshi which he knows will get him in trouble later but he can feel the stress from earlier building up again. At that moment the door clicks open and out comes a displeased Joshua.
He steps out closing the door behind him but not moving away and looks to Hoshi to ask, “What’s going on?”
“Shua did the company say anything about adding a new member” Joshua gives Hoshi a questioning look and shakes his head. Now Dino felt they were taking things too far. He’s getting angrier by the minute to the point where he can’t say anything so he pulls out his phone and starts typing. He searches Seventeen, pulls up one of the images, and shows it to his members. Through gritted teeth, he says, “Look thirteen members.”
They look doubtfully at his phone and then at him. Joshua speaks up first, “There are twelve in this picture.”
Dino quickly turns the phone around and sure enough, there are only 12 people in it. He huffs and swipes to the next picture, he’s not in it either.
Dino goes through several more images looking for one with all of them, not only does he not find one with all thirteen of them, but there is not a single picture of him anywhere. He looks up his name, and all that comes up is a couple of actors. He searches for anything remotely related to him but there’s nothing aside from an old Instagram account.
At this point, Dino was panicking. He can’t understand how there’s no mention of him anywhere. He looks up looking for answers from the other two but all they provide are worried looks amongst each other. He’s afraid. It’s all his fears manifested into one vivid nightmare and he’s afraid of what it means if it isn’t.
As he spirals Joshua’s voice comes through his mounting thoughts, “Hey, I don’t know what you were told but I think it’d be best if you talk to the staff,” it's gentle but he can hear the hesitancy. He steps back feeling betrayed. It hurts that he’s saying this not out of concern for him but to get rid of some delusional kid.
He tries so hard to think of a way to get out of this, would telling them something only he knows break whatever delusion this is? No, what if they think he’s a stalker Hoshi would kill him. Then he thinks about the members inside the room, maybe they’ll know him they have to.
“I- uhm. Mingha- no Jun-hyung he knows…I need to talk to him,” He tries reaching past Joshua who had moved closer in an attempt to lead him away from the room but Hoshi grabs his wrist.
“No. you should go-Hey!” Dino is desperate, he needs to find a way out and if it means that Hoshi is mad at him for a moment he’s willing to take that anger. All he wants is for them to remember him. He pushes through with as much power as he can manage to enter with a cry, “Hyung!”
Inside it is deadly silent but despite knowing there are supposed to be only two people inside he sees all of his members.
Dino tries to calm his breathing but seeing them all there he can’t help but feel so worn out and drops to his knees. The room breaks into chaos with everyone rapidly surrounding him. He’s overwhelmed in a much better way that he can’t help but laugh.
Among all the chaos, Seungcheol manages his way to the maknae telling the rest of the members to give him some space.
“Channie, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Chan feels Seungcheol place a reassuring hand on his arm. He shakes his head and leans into Seungchoel’s side, so the older moves to hold their maknae comfortably.
“Hyung, you know who I am right?” Chan knows his members are worried and holding off from prying so that he can talk on his own, but he just wants to make sure he’s back in the real world.
“Of course, I do you’re Lee Chan Seventeen’s precious maknae,” Suengcheol could tell something was off with Chan, he needed to hear how important he was so he made sure he knew it. He looks at the other members who wear the same concerned expression he does. He glances at Soonyoung and Jeonghan exchanging a silent conversation with each other before deciding that they should cut practice short. He only worried that Chan would reject the idea and push to stay longer to not fall behind schedule.
He mouths to Soonyoung to think of an excuse before pulling away from Chan and speaking, “Hey Chan how about we stop here today and go back to the dorms?” Chan looks questioningly at Seungcheol ready to retaliate when Soonyoung talks first. “Let’s do that. We’re all too tired to continue since there were more mistakes than normal. Let’s pick this up tomorrow, right now all I can think of is dinner. Mingyu, what are we having!”
Soonyoung throws himself to Mingyu giving him a look telling him to go along with him. When they start arguing about dinner the other members start picking up on the situation and make their own complaints. With everyone preoccupied with packing up, Chan has no choice but to give in, he stands with the help of Seungcheol and joins in on teasing Mingyu.
They all head back to the dorms with no more incidents but if Chan ends up being coddled more than usual by his members he doesn’t say anything and rolls his eyes at their antics.