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It’s impossible not to notice that something is off with Jisung and Minho. At first, it just seems awkward. They aren’t spending as much time together, aren’t attached at the hip like they normally are. It’s strange, but Chan figures it’s their personal business, it’s not interfering with the group or their work, they’ll probably figure it out themselves soon enough.
But then things actually get worse. Something must have happened, because Jisung comes back to the dorm one day, ignores everyone, and slams his door shut. They don’t see him for the rest of the day, even when Chan messages him to ask if he needs dinner.
After that, the two of them won’t even look at each other. It’s not just awkward, it feels downright hostile. Jisung won’t talk to anyone about it; any time he’s at the dorm he just spends all his time in his room, and any time he comes out he looks like he’s either just been crying, or is about to cry. He keeps to himself when they’re working, not joking around and keeping the mood up like he usually does. The most Chan manages to get out of him is a mumbled, “I don’t want to talk about it,” so he decides not the press the issue for now.
Minho, on the other hand, just seems mad. It’s like he has invisible spikes coming out of his body, warning anyone off from getting too close.
The only time the spikes seem to retract is when Chan overhears Seungmin quietly ask, “Did you guys break up or something?”
Minho curls in on himself slightly, “Um, no,” he replies in a small voice.
“Then what-"
“Don’t.” He cuts Seungmin off before he can ask anything else. And just like that, the walls are back up. Seungmin drops it, and no one else tries to ask either of them anything about it.
Chan is relieved that they haven’t broken up, though. Maybe this is fixable.
Aside from how uncomfortable it is, it’s also just bizarre to see. They balance each other out, usually, if one of them is having a bad day. Minho not doing anything about Jisung being sad was... well, it felt like entering a parallel universe. Chan does catch Minho staring though, a few times, when Jisung isn’t paying attention. He knows that expression- Minho is worried about him.
Chan really doesn’t know what to make of it all. Part of him really wants to just sit them down, make them talk, fix everything. But it’s not his place, not really. He might be the leader but this is personal, not related to work. They should work things out themselves, really.
He makes a resolution with himself to only get involved if things don’t get better soon. If it’s really affecting the group.
It’s not long before the rest of the members are gathered in the living room of Chan's dorm- Jisung in the studio and Minho at the gym, both having turned down Chan's offer of company- and Changbin pipes up, “Alright, I’m just going to say it. What the fuck is going on with Jisung and Minho-hyung?”
Everyone starts murmuring but ultimately all eyes turn to Chan, expecting answers that he doesn’t have. “I don’t know,” he shrugs, “They won’t talk to me, I’ve tried.”
Hyunjin groans, “Can’t we just lock them in a room until they figure it out?”
Seungmin snorts, “Yeah, good luck forcing Minho-hyung to do anything. I’m pretty sure he’s five seconds away from stabbing someone at all times these days, I’m not willing to risk it.”
“Fair point,” Hyunjin sighs.
Chan runs a hand over his face, “We can’t force them to do anything,” he says, as much as he wants to fix everything, “If they won’t tell anyone what’s going on, then they obviously don’t want us to get involved.”
“What about when we have to start filming content and stuff, though?” Felix asks, “People will notice.”
“There’s no way this lasts that long, right?” Jeongin says, “I mean... it’s them.”
“I really hope not,” is all Chan can say. Even if it does, he'd like to believe they could both be professional about it. Although the idea of this not getting resolved soon makes his heart ache for both of them.
“You’re telling me no one knows anything? At all?” Changbin asks again, insistent.
Seungmin shrugs, “I asked Minho-hyung if they broke up and he said no, so that’s something I suppose?”
“It can’t be that bad, then,” Jeongin says, sounding like he’s trying to convince himself as well as the rest of them, “Right?”
They all fall quiet. Probably thinking about how it could possibly be worse. About what it might look like if they did break up.
After a beat, Felix breaks the silence, “I heard them yelling at each other a couple of days ago, in our dorm” he says quietly, “I didn’t catch what they were saying, but then Jisung stormed out and he hasn’t been over again since.”
“He wasn’t over that much even a little bit before that though, was he?” Jeongin adds, and Felix and Seungmin make noises of agreement.
“Wow, I’ve never heard them yell at each other,” Hyunjin mumbles.
“Me either, until that,” Felix says sadly.
“Fuck,” Changbin says.
Yeah.
There’s not much else to say.
They have dance practice two days later, and when Minho gives Jisung some corrections, Chan can feel everyone holding their breath.
Jisung says nothing, but he makes the corrections.
Everyone exhales.
Things are a bit tense, but manageable.
It’s nice actually, to see Minho in his element, looking more at ease than he has in days. While everyone takes break in between run through, he comes up to Chan to discuss the choreography, having a few ideas for some tweaks.
They’re in the middle of talking about it, so Chan nearly misses the commotion from near the couch; all he hears is a raised voice and the everything going quiet. When he looks over, Felix is curled up on the couch with the others gathered around him, while Jisung is off to the side, standing by himself, slumped against the wall.
He rushes over, Minho trailing behind him, and when he gets closer, he realises that Felix is crying.
“What the hell happened?”
Felix sniffles, “Nothing, it doesn’t matter,” he says, but more tears spill out of his eyes.
He looks at the rest of the guys, questioning. It seems like none of them want to say anything, until Changbin chimes up, “Jisung snapped at him,” he says.
Chan turns to look at Jisung, who isn’t looking at any of them. He turns back to Felix, “What did he say?”
Felix takes a deep breath and wipes at his eyes with his sleeves, “It doesn’t matter,” he repeats, “Seriously, just leave it, he was right anyway, I keep messing up.”
Chan is absolutely not going to ‘just leave it’. Just because it’s Jisung, doesn’t mean he can get away with talking to Felix like that.
He moves towards Jisung, “What the fuck did you say to him?” he asks, trying and failing to keep his voice level.
Jisung's eyes glance up at him, “Hyung...”
“You made him cry, Jisung, you can’t talk to him like that!”
“I didn’t mean...” Jisung starts to say quietly, his eyes dropping back to the floor.
Chan takes a deep breath, “I know you’re having a tough time but seriously, you can’t take it out on Lix. Or on anyone. You need to sort your fucking shit out,” he says, and then his eyes slide over to Minho, “both of you.”
Minho frowns, “This has nothing to do with me.”
Jisung pushes himself away from the wall, his eyes darting between Chan, Minho and Felix. For a moment, Chan can’t tell whether he’s going to start yelling again or if he’s going to burst into tears.
In the end, he does neither; he just turns around and walks out the door without a word.
The rest of them are quiet as the door swings shut behind him.
After a moment their eyes all fall onto Minho.
“I’m not going after him,” is all he says, and then he turns and goes back to the stereo to reset the music.
“Give him some time to cool off,” Changbin suggests, probably sensing that Chan was thinking about going after Jisung himself.
Minho is playing the music again before anyone can say anything else and they end up dispersing, continuing to work on the choreography. Chan wants to check on Felix, make sure he’s okay, but the others seem to have that covered; Hyunjin and Seungmin already joking around with him and making him smile.
While the rest of them are busy, Chan approaches Changbin. “Did I go too far? With Jisung?” he asks quietly.
Changbin shakes his head, “No, he needed it hear it,” he says, “Minho-hyung too, probably. They need to realise their shit doesn’t only affect them.”
He's is grateful for the reassurance, and tries not to feel too guilty about it, especially when it becomes clear that Jisung isn’t coming back to the dance studio. He still leaves earlier than planned though, to go check on Jisung. He might have fucked up, but he clearly wasn’t okay.
When he gets back to the dorm, he goes straight to Jisung’s door. It’s slightly ajar, and when Chan gets closer, he hears loud, gut-wrenching sobs coming from behind it. He feels his heart break a little bit.
He knocks lightly on the door, “Jisung-ah?” he calls gently as he pushes the door open slowly.
The room is dim, and Jisung is curled up in a ball on his bed, knees tucked up to his chest, hugging them close as he cries. He looks up at Chan as he comes in, his eyes wide and red. He sniffles and tries to take a deep breath, but it’s slow and shaky, and doesn’t seem to do anything to calm him down.
Chan rushes to his side, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “Shh... you’re okay... breathe, Jisungie...” he murmurs.
Jisung crying isn’t unusual, but it’s been a long time since Chan has seen him this worked up. It breaks his heart, and suddenly he feels terrible for not doing something sooner. All he’s ever wanted to do is take care of his members, and all he wants to do now is take care of Jisung.
“I- I’m sorry, hyung,” Jisung stammers out through shaky breaths, “I fucked everything up.”
“It’s okay, we can fix it,” Chan says, rubbing his shoulder gently.
“Everyone is mad at me,” Jisung whispers.
“I’m not mad at you.”
Jisung peers up at him from behind his own arm, “You’re not?”
Chan shakes his head, “No, I mean, maybe I was in the moment, but.. well, you know how protective I am of Lix. But now I’m just worried about you, to be honest.”
“Oh,” Jisung sniffles and uncurls himself slightly, leaning his head against Chan's shoulder. Chan gives him a small squeeze as he settles into his arms. He’s still crying, but slower now, his breathing evened out.
“Will you tell me what’s going on?” Chan asks gently, “I want to help.”
“I don’t think you can,” Jisung mumbles, “It’s all fucked, Minho-hyung is mad at me and it’s all my fault.”
“What happened?”
Jisung takes a deep breath, and one of his hands grips Chan's shirt, “He thinks I work too hard, that I’m going to burn myself out. He’s said it before, but I guess I knew he was going to bring it up again, so I was kind of avoiding him so he couldn’t,” he says, everything spilling out of his mouth at once, his voice thick with tears, “It was stupid, I know it was, but I just didn’t want to hear it. But then he got upset with me for that as well as being mad about how I was burning myself out and we had this whole big fight...” he trails off and lets out another small sob.
As Jisung wipes at his face, Chan thinks back to the last few weeks. Jisung had been spending a lot of time at the studio, very late nights, working hard. But then, it hadn’t seemed that out of the ordinary to Chan because he had been there too, doing the same thing.
A pang of guilt hits Chan square in the stomach. How had he not realised Jisung was overworking himself?
“We’ve never fought like that before,” Jisung continues, his voice small, “We don’t even argue. It was horrible.”
“You guys will figure it out,” Chan says confidently, “I know you will, if you just talk about it.”
“He won’t even talk to me, though,” Jisung sniffles.
“I’m sure he’ll come around. We both know that Minho loves you too much to lose you over something like this,” Chan says.
“Maybe.”
Eventually, after sitting together for a while, Jisung falls asleep against Chan's shoulder. It’s not surprising; he probably wore himself out from all the crying, and Chan suspects he’s probably barely slept for the last few days.
He carefully manoeuvres Jisung off of his shoulder and onto the pillow, and strokes over his hair gently. His face is still a bit red and puffy from all the crying, but he looks so much more peaceful than Chan has seen him in days, and it tugs on his heart. He quietly sneaks out of the room, leaving Jisung to sleep in peace.
When he wanders into the living room, Minho is sitting on the couch, staring at the floor.
“Thought you said you weren’t coming after him,” Chan teases gently.
Minho rolls his eyes at him, “Who says I’m not here to see you? Or Changbin and Hyunjin?”
Chan raises his eyebrows, “Well, are you?”
Minho blinks, “Shut up,” he says. And then, softer, “Is he okay?”
The corner of Chan's mouth slopes up and he moves to sit next to Minho on the couch, “He was crying a lot,” he starts to explain.
“Yeah, he does that,” Minho says quietly, and Chan thinks he can hear a hint of fondness in his voice.
“He’s asleep now though. I think he’s going to be okay, once he realises Felix isn’t angry with him.”
Minho nods, looking a bit lost in thought.
Chan hesitates, wondering if he should tell Minho about what Jisung had said. “He... he told me what happened,” he says eventually, “with you two.”
Minho's gaze drops to his knees, “Oh.”
“I know it’s none of my business, but can’t you just talk to him?”
“He doesn’t want me to talk to him,” Minho says sadly, shaking his head. “And I don’t blame him, this whole thing is my fault.”
Chan frowns, “How do you figure that?”
“I shouldn’t have gotten mad at him, I should’ve just talked to him, but he was avoiding me and I was upset...” he runs a hand over his face. “We don’t even argue, I can’t believe I yelled at him like that,” he all but whispers, and then covers his face with his hands.
Chan puts a hand on his shoulder, “These things happen, it doesn’t mean you can’t make it better.”
“I can’t lose him, hyung, I can’t,” Minho says. His voice is thick, and slightly muffled by his hands, and that’s when Chan realises that he’s crying. Not a lot, not like Jisung’s sobbing from earlier, but he’s definitely crying.
“I’m sure you won’t,” Chan murmurs.
Minho sighs and leans against the back of the sofa, wiping his eyes. “Fuck,” is all he says.
A moment later, Jisung wanders through the doorway, his hair ruffled and eyes still blinking the sleep away. His eyes are still slightly red from earlier, and he freezes when he notices Minho.
Minho looks back and they lock eyes, staring at each other silently.
“I was just, uh...” Minho breaks the silence, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. “I wanted to check you were okay,” he finally says, then moves to stand up, “I’ll leave now.”
Jisung's eyes follow him as he takes a step towards the door, and then he says, voice small, “No, don’t go.”
Minho stills, a few steps away from Jisung and blinks at him.
“Please, Minho-hyung, don’t go. Please stay, please talk to me,” Jisung says desperately, tears welling up in his eyes.
“Jisungie...” Minho says gently, and opens his arms out to him. Jisung quickly moves forward and slots into them, burying himself under Minho's chin, and Minho's arms circle around him, one hand cradling the back of his neck, holding him close like he never wants to let go of him again.
“I’m sorry,” Jisung sniffles into Minho's chest.
Minho just shushes him, pressing a kiss to the side of his head before burying his face in his neck.
Chan suddenly feels like he’s intruding on something very intimate, like he’s not supposed to be here. “I’ll leave you guys to talk,” he says quietly as he leaves, though he’s not sure either of them take any notice of him.
He sends off messages to Changbin and Hyunjin, letting them know to give them some space, and goes to bother Felix in the other dorm.
It seems everyone else has the same idea, because they’re all together in the living room hours later when Jisung and Minho return, hands entwined and gentle smiles on their faces.
“Oooooooh,” Changbin chimes when he sees them, and the others join in, laughing and grinning
Minho rolls his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, we’re super cute, I know.”
Jisung is still quiet, and his lips press together as he stays close to Minho's side. He’s a lot calmer than earlier, but Chan has known him long enough to know when he’s anxious.
“Lix,” he says quietly, once the others have settled down, “Can I-"
“There’s no need,” Felix says, shaking his head and shooting Jisung a wide smile, full of sunshine, “I know, we're good.”
Jisung chews his lip, “Still, I want to...”
Felix stands up and bounds over to him, holding his arms out, “Just give me a hug, then we're even!” he chirps.
This brings a smile out of Jisung, and he lets go of Minho's hand to throw his arms tightly around Felix, who sways them back and forth as Minho goes to find a place to sit.
“M'sorry, Lixie,” Jisung mumbles into his shoulder, “Love you so much.”
“Love you too, Jisungie,” Felix replies, squeezing him tight, pressing a kiss to the side of his head, and then pulling away with a twinkle in his eyes, “Now go spend time with your man, he’s missed you!”
Jisung rolls his eyes and giggles, but then does as he’s told, making his way back over to Minho, cuddling up into his side. Minho puts a protective arm around his shoulders and Jisung laces their fingers together again.
Chan looks around the room, unable to keep a small smile off his face as he thinks about how glad he is that they all have each other.
He’s brought out of his thoughts by Felix poking him in the arm. He shuffles over to make room, and Felix curls up into his side.