Chapter Text
"GUYS! WHERE ARE YOU?"
The first to hear both the voice and the sound of footsteps on the corridor floor were Chan and Minho. They looked at eachother and then at Jisung, Felix and Hyunjin. It seemed like they didn't hear anything. Minho gave it a try anyway.
"It was me or you guys also heard someone screaming?"
"I didn't hear anything." Jisung said, now with a confused look on his face.
"It sounded like Jeongin, right?" Chan asked especially at the second oldest, since nobody heard. They again looked at eachother, this time all the five of them.
They were in the practice room. They were working on some more difficult steps of the latest choreography that they prepared and that didn't come off well. They took a break to breath and relax a bit before starting again.
They had some light music as background noise, but that Hyunjin turned down when the others started talking, curious to see if the voice could be heard again.
Everything happened in the span of some seconds, but it was enough to make them go silent and now they were all on the alert in case they heard other noises coming from the corridor.
After a short while they heard again footsteps outside the room, this time louder.
"GUYS!"
"Okay I heard it too this time and it is in fact Jeongin." admitted Jisung, extremely bewildered by the situation.
Chan, slightly worried for the maknae, got up and went towards the door. As soon as he put his head out the door he saw Jeongin at the beginning of the corridor, who was running in his direction. When the youngest noticed his presence outside the door he almost collided with him. Luckily Chan had quick reflexes and managed to avoid both of them ending up on the ground, grabbing Jeongin and stopping his run.
Keeping him near his body with an arm on his shoulders he accompanied him into the room, where there were the other four guys that were looking at him, some worried and some confused.
As soon as they entered, Chan released him from his grasp and closed the door with his right hand.
The guy leaned forward to catch his breath, his hands on the knees and his chest rising and falling rapidly.
"Jeongin what happened? Why did you run like that?" Minho asked, giving voice to the thoughts of all the kids.
The youngest stood up, still breathless, with even a few drops of sweat furrowing his forehead.
"Yo-you are on eve-every news ac-accounts. An arti-cle has come out and is mak-making the rounds on the w-web."
"But what are you talking about?" We are who? If it is about all of us I don't see the problem." Felix said.
"Yeah. Articles about us pop up everyday." pointed out Chan.
"Exactly. So why are you this worried?" Minho spoke again, not understanding where the maknae's agitation came from.
The latter, having recovered enough breath, spoke again, facing directly towards the dancer.
"It is not about all of us. It's about just yo-you and. . ." he stopped there, almost scared to finish the sentence.
"Me and who?"
"You and Jisung."
"Wh-what do you mean? I don't understand."
Before Jeongin could answer Jisung jumped up, hands covering his face, leaving only the eyes visible, which seemed bigger in that moment, probably due to the veil of fear that had taken possession of his face. He looked really upset, almost in shock.
"Jeongin please tell me that they didn't write what I am thinking."
he simply shifted his gaze to the older one, making him understand the answer with his eyes. It looked like they had already discussed the topic.
"Shit. . ." was everything that left Han's mouth, before he put his hands on his forehead and started walking in circles in front of the huge mirrors of the practice room.
If before Minho wasn't understanding anything, now he was even more confused. what kind of article were they talking about?
"Jeongin please, could you tell me what exactly did they write in this article?"
"I think that it all started with some photos that fans took, I don't know where or when, that seem to portray you and Jisung in, so to speak, intimate attitudes. Your faces can't be seen well due to the light and angles, so we don't know if it's actually you, but the news went crazy anyway. there are those who cry scandal, those who say that it should have been expected from kids who live in such close contact with each other and others who instead want to investigate the issue more thoroughly."
"What th-" Minho tried to speak, but Jeongin interrupted him, anticipating the question that he knew would have left the older's lips.
"In summary, they think that you are a couple."