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Keyu was in the middle of having one of his recurring dreams. The one where it was debut night and he was named number 1 out of the 11 boys who succeeded in becoming a member of the band.
He was so happy he didn’t know what to do with himself. Jumping ecstatically with the other memebers as they congratulated each other.
Most of their faces where blurry but he could make out a couple.
Oscar, Jiayuan, Rikimaru, Pat-
BOINK!
“ Wake up man, I’m pretty sure sleeping isn’t what they meant when they said it was a free day,” Oscar said, repeatedly hitting him with his pillow.
Keyu groaned loudly his dream fading away almost immediately, before he could even get to the best part.
“Give me a few more minutes,” he pleaded trying and failing to turn over on his side as Oscar yanked at his arm harshly, completely pulling his top half out of bed.
“ Everyone’s busy practicing for their solo performances already, I doubt you’ll find a room at this point,” he said still pulling at Keyu’s arm.
“ Shit! why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” Keyu blurted sitting up abruptly as his eyes tried to adjust to the brightly lit room.
Oscar narrowed his eyes at him, “ I did. I woke you up an hour ago. You’re lucky I came in here to get my water bottle,” he said picking up said bottle from his night stand and pressing it firmly against the side of Keyu's head.
“ What time is it now?” Keyu sighed looking at the clock on the wall that read 10:37am. He scrunched his nose knowing that almost everyone probably got up at like 8am.
He quickly pulled himself out of bed gathering the things he needed to take a quick shower.
Oscar laughed at his frantic state muttering something about him being an idiot as he made his way for the door.
“ Oh, before I forget someone left something for you last night but you were already fast asleep. He placed it under your pillow,”.
“Someone? Someone who?,” Keyu asked not understanding why Oscar was suddenly trying to be cryptic.
“ Just someone bro, I don’t know look under your pillow,” he said trying to suppress a grin.
Keyu shook his head “ Okay whatever, where’re you going now? Why don’t you wait for me and we can practice together?” He offered.
“ Sorry man, me and Hu yetao are already taking turns showing each other our performances, you know for constructive criticism and all that,”.
“ Yeah of course you are,” Keyu replied a sly smile on his face.
Oscar gave him a glare turning on his heels to walk out the door. He popped his head back in at the last minute. “Don’t forget to look under your pillow,” he said giving him a wink as he closed the door.
More than half the day had already passed when Keyu finally got back to his room. Not to rest though, his shirt was soaked through and desperately needed to be changed.
He had been practicing with Rikimaru, who’d been helping him with his solo performance.
He was thankful for the help of course, Riki was still the number one dancer in his heart and definitely the best choreographer.
He’d made him do the dance several times, watching closely and pin pointing exactly where he could improve on. A real professional.
Keyu took his shirt off, switching it out for a plain black one.
Probably best not to wear anything light since it’d just make his sweat more visible he thought.
He decided he could afford to lie on his bed for a minute or so just to rest his tired eyes, when he felt something under his pillow Oscar’s words from this morning coming back to him.
He hadn’t noticed anything under his pillow earlier but that was probably cause he had barely been awake.
He sat up slowly sighing at how short his “rest” was and reached under his pillow feeling something square and hard.
He pulled it out and blinked the red packet of Thai instant noodles filling his vision.
Patrick.
He had barely seen Patrick the last few days much to his dismay.
The younger boy had been having a hard time lately after finding out his latest ranking.
Burying himself into his practice and avoiding anything else. Unfortunately Keyu fell into the latter category.
The last time they’d properly talked was the Pajama party and that was nearly a week ago now.
Even when they had to practice for “ we are the youth” Patrick barely spoke to anyone during breaks instead going over the choreo in his head and walking out to practice some more on his own as soon as they were dismissed.
It made Keyu very sad. He’d reached out to him of course, inviting him to lunch everyday or offering to help him go over the Chinese lyrics.
But Patrick always politely declined a tight smile on his perfect face as he said “ maybe next time” and ran off to rehearse somewhere on his own.
Keyu knew he had bigger things to worry about, his ranking was also very unstable and he needed to focus on his own performances. He was nearly there and only needed to push for a couple more days.
But, what if this was Patrick’s way of finally reaching out to him, their last chance to talk before an uncertain future.
Maybe he could help Patrick relax a little. He’d made a promise to himself to always be there for Patrick whenever he could.
Be worthy to be called Patrick’s Gege.
And so it was settled.
Keyu ran into the room where he and Riki had been practicing, Thai noodles in hand as he told Riki to keep rehearsing without him saying he had something important to do.
“ More important than practicing?,” Riki questioned looking genuinely confused.
“ Apparently so,” Keyu replied he himself shocked at the fact.
Patrick seemed to have disappeared off the island, everyone he’d asked hadn’t seen him.
Even nine.
He thought how he should probably just go back to rehearsing but he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus not when Patrick was the only thing he could think of now.
He really ought to get his priorities straight.
“ Oh Yuheng, have you seen Patrick?,” he stopped the older boy on his way down the stairs.
Yuheng visibly sighed at the name. And Keyu felt his chest tighten. “ What? Did something happen?” He asked unable to control the worry evident in his voice.
Yuheng looked around making sure no one was about before speaking again.
“ I probably shouldn’t say anything, he’d kill me if he knows I told you but… I just don’t know what to do,” he said his voice laced with concern.
Keyu swallowed hard.
“ We all know he’s going through it after the latest rankings, I mean we all are but then I remember how young he is and honestly it just breaks my heart,”.
“ Why, what did he say?,” Keyu asked fearful for the answer.
“He didn’t say much of anything, I just asked him how he was and he pulled me into the bathroom and sobbed into my arms,”.
Keyu felt dizzy, he’d only seen Patrick cry a couple times and it always involved other people.
Like when he got a message from his mum at the fan meeting or whenever one is his friends had to go home. But never because of his own efforts.
He also felt slightly jealous. The fact that he’d asked Patrick numerous times if he was okay and he’d lied straight to his face.
Yuheng asked once and he practically fell into his arms.
Keyu suppressed the bitter feeling. This was no time to think about such.
Besides, he knew exactly why Patrick hadn't shared how upset he was with Keyu.
He'd often talked about how he didn't want to bother others with his problems, feeling that it was his responsibly to handle on his own.
Keyu ran a frustrated hand through his hair. There wasn't not one person in here who didn't adore Patrick to a certain extent. All he had to do was ask and everyone would be willing to help him.
Especially Keyu
“ Where is he now?,’ he asked.
Keyu opened the door as quietly as he could making sure Patrick couldn’t hear him.
He needn’t be so quiet though. The room was filled with music. Bad and Boujee blaring loudly from the speakers as Patrick rehearsed.
He watched him from the door unable to take his eyes off him.
Patrick looked as determined as ever dancing as if he had an audience in front of him. He did every move full out his expression fierce.
He looked good, really really good.
But, he also looked tired, his eyes puffy and red no doubt from crying and his hair sticking to his forehead marinated in sweat.
Keyu had to resist the urge to wipe it off for him.
He finished dancing, the music fading away as he bent down to catch his breathe.
Keyu took the opportunity to walk into the room clapping loudly and startling Patrick who’s entire body shook in fear.
It was simply the cutest thing he’d ever witnessed.
“ Sorry did I scare you?’ He said laughing.
Patrick glared at him, pointing a finger accusingly towards him “ hey, shouldn’t you be practicing?’ He said walking over to his water bottle and taking a generous swig.
Keyu shrugged “ I needed a break,”.
“ You needed a break or someone to distract?” Patrick asked picking up his MP3 player to rewind the music.
“ Both,” Keyu replied walking over to him and snatching his MP3 player away placing it high above his head.
“ Hey!” Patrick protested, trying and failing to get it back.
He huffed in defeat, crossing his arms haughtily “ Daniel stop, I need to practice,” he said seriously.
Keyu’s heart fluttered. Barely anyone called him Daniel these days. He preferred it that way.
That name he’d decided was to be used only by the small Thai boy in front of him.
Keyu ignored him placing the MP3 player in his back pocket. “ I got your gift,” he said waving the Thai noodles in front of Patrick’s face.
Patrick tried to look annoyed but Keyu could see a small smile behind his expression.
The first smile he’d seen in days.
“ I hope you like it,” he said quietly “ I meant to give them to you after the pajama party but I completely forgot,” he murmured using a towel to dry his face.
“ What made you remember all of a sudden?” Keyu asked balancing the packet on his head.
“ I saw you looked really tired yesterday after practice, I know it’s been hard on you lately so I wanted to give you a little encouragement,” Patrick said giving Keyu a meaningful look.
Keyu couldn’t believe his ears.
Patrick was the one having a hard time.
Patrick was the one who needed to be encouraged.
But here Patrick was being as perfect as ever thoughtfully putting everyone else’s feelings above his own.
He wanted to ask if he knew just how amazing and caring of a person he was and how much he loved having him in his life but, thought better of it.
“ If you really want to encourage me you’d take 10 minutes out of your practice to make it for me , after all it’s in Thai and I can’t read it,” Keyu said feigning confusion.
“ It’s got English instructions too,” Patrick replied a full out grin on his face now.
“ Really? Hmm suddenly I can’t read English either,” Keyu said causing Patrick to roll his eyes at him amusingly.
“ So will you?”
“ Fine, but I get the first fork full,” Patrick said snatching the Thai noodles from him and running out of the room excitedly.
Keyu smiled to himself picking up Patrick’s water bottle as he walked after him.
He’d decided then that Patrick was absolutely more important than practice especially when only he was able to make him smile again.
At least for as long as Patrick would let Keyu distract him.