Chapter 17

Seo Changbin

"Go out. Hyungnim is here."

I was sitting on the floor beside Hyunjin's bed when Minho cracked open the door. I nudged Hyunjin that have his airpods on beside me.

He looked at me. I gestured him to take his airpods off. He does what I gestured him to do.

"We need to go out. Hyungnim is here." I repeated what Minho hyung said. I looked at the opened door. Minho wasn't there anymore.

Hyunjin walked out faster than me. He seems bothered by something. He was holding his phone with his right hand and his hand was shaking for a bit. I was worried about it but I decided to push the thought in the back of my mind.

"Here they are." Everyone was seated in the living room. Some are sitting on the sofa, some decided to sit on the floor. There is a spot if you want to sit on the sofa and Hyunjin sat in it before I even stepped on going on it.

"What's happening with him?" I whispered to myself. I'm getting annoyed! He's acting so weird. I mean, he's weird every day but this one is unusual for him.

I sat at the floor beside Jisung. His smile seems to be genuine. Not like the couple days before.

"I'm here to announce that you'll be having your world tour next comeback!" Our manager cheerfully remarked. We looked at each other shocked at what we heard.

There's a small amount of awkward silence before we all cheered. My eyes went to Jisung and I was glad to see his sweet large smile.

I looked at Hyunjin out of curiosity and I don't know why. The frown in his face doesn't even change into a small smile. What's with him?

We're all happy nonetheless. I'm a bit worried about Hyunjin but I just shook it off for now. I'll just question him later.

"Jisung, please come with me for a sec." My eyebrows automatically furrowed upon hearing our manager call him out.

Jisung's smile slowly fades away. He stood up and went to his and the younger's shared room with our manager.

"What could that be about?" Jeongin broke the silence that's starting to arise after Jisung closed the door shut to their room.

"Maybe because of the concert?"

"That doesn't make any sense at all, Felix. Stop saying dumb things."

"Stop being mean, Seungmin!"

Seungmin just stared at him for a couple of seconds before staring at me.

"What?" I bluntly asked. He doesn't answer me. Weird.

"Hey, Hyunjin hyung. Why aren't you talking?" My eyes went to Felix when I heard him say Hyunjin's name.

I saw him poking Hyunjin's sides and Hyunjin isn't really having it at all.

"Stop." Hyunjin simply said before scrolling with his phone with a stern face.

Felix, being the child he is, doesn't listen to Hyunjin. Instead, he kept poking him with a silly smile in his face.

"I said stop, Felix! Stop!" Hyunjin whisper-shout at Felix causing the others to stare at them.

"Why are you so mean." Felix sadly whispered.

"What's with you? Why are you so gloomy and shit?" I couldn't help but rudely ask. I don't like it when someone acts rudely towards our younger members.

Especially when it's Felix.

"Language, Changbin."

"I'm sorry, alright. I just don't get what's the reason for him to act shitty towards Felix."

We might be annoying each other, shouting at each other, being 'rude' at each other but we don't really mean it. We all did that as a joke towards each other.

And now, I could really tell that Hyunjin isn't joking. And I don't like that he shouted at Felix even tho it wasn't really a shout. Felix was just trying to lift his mood up.

"Chill out, Changbin," Woojin whispered beside me.

"What's happening with you, Hyunjin? Share it to us. I'm sure we can help in some ways." Chan asked him. He looked at Chan before looking at his phone again.

"It's nothing." He said before he stood up. I stood up after him. I grabbed him in the arm turning him around. He's taller than me but I don't care.

"It's clearly something. You won't almost shout at Felix if it's nothing." I said with a matter-of-fact voice.

"It's nothing." He weakly shoved my hand off his arm. I caught a glimpse of his eyes. Is he freaking crying?!

He took big steps towards the door of our room. He swung it open before swiftly going inside, shutting the door instantly.

"What's with him?"

"I don't know. But I'm sure something's off."

———

"I'm hungry..." I mumble as I stood up from my bed. I took my earphones off after pausing the movie I'm watching.

I sat up, scratching the back of my head while yawning. I checked the time on my phone and it's past midnight.

"Uh oh." I worriedly muttered as I remember that we have a scheduled fan meet tomorrow. I would only have a short amount of sleep. We need to prepare early tomorrow.

I need to sleep but I really need to eat.

I jumped out of my bed. I tried my hardest to not create any noises because Minho is a light sleeper and I don't know if he's awake or not. He might be sleeping because it's past midnight.

I almost squealed out of surprise when I heard a small crashing sound. I looked back and I saw a light coming from the floor.

I looked around before taking light steps towards the thing—I suspected as a phone. I crouched down to reach and grab it.

"Stray Kids Hwang Hyunjin's... Bullying controversy? What is this?!" I covered my mouth to stop myself from raising my voice.

The phone is on the browser. It has some article left hanging in it. I scrolled down through the whole article. Reading every word slowly through my mind.

{Link: https://www.kpopmap.com/stray-kids-hyunjin-past-comments-shocked-netizens-in-light-with-bullying-controversy/}

Below, there are some conversations screenshots in the article. My body froze as I continue to read everything in the article.

Even tho I wanted to stop, my finger just kept scrolling. I reached the end and I saw some comments from the netizens.

{Link: https://pann-choa.blogspot.com/2018/04/enter-talk-stray-kids-hwang-hyungjins.html?m=1}

"Hyung?" My head shot up when I heard someone's voice.

"Why didn't you tell me? Us?" I can't help but raise my voice. All of this is just too much. And the fact that he has read this before is just... Not okay.

The brightness coming from the phone is the only light we have since I haven't flicked opened the light switch.

It's a small amount of light yet I clearly saw how his tears raced down his face. My expression softens as I pulled him into a hug.

"When did you found out about this?" I asked him when he calmed down.

He hasn't pulled from our hug so I gently rubbed his back multiple times in attempt of giving comfort.

"Earlier this evening... When we're watching..." He said between light sobs.

"Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you tell hyungnim?" I asked him, still rubbing his back lightly and softly.

"I don't want you to think that I'm like that before I debuted or even until now..." He said with a small voice. I just rubbed his back encouraging him to say what he wanted to say.

"It's just... You all seemed so happy because of what our manager reported... I mean, who wouldn't, right? We're making our first world tour with each other... I didn't want to break that happiness that I see in your faces..." He sobbed, breaking down into tears for the second time.

"Sure, we'll be sad but that's because we care for you. There's nothing to worry about us knowing this kind of things because we all know the real you. We won't just let rumors destroy our bond, not just like a simple boy group but as a team." I pulled for him, grabbing the tissue box in the study table next to me.

"Don't worry. We won't judge you. Tell them about this." I patted his head as he slowly sat in his bed. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, nodding.

"Trust us, Hyunjin. Nobody's going to judge you." I whispered. He nodded while looking at the ground.

I looked at where the light switch is located when the light suddenly turned on. I saw Minho standing near it.

"You're awake?"

"No, I'm still sleeping."

"Tsk."

"Who's sobbing a while ago? It woke me up." He said with a scolding voice. His are squinted due to him just waking up.

"I'm sorry, hyung..." Hyunjin said with a small voice without looking at him.

That's when he noticed our position. I was standing near Hyunjin's bed while patting his head. Hyunjin's sitting at his bed still looking at the ground.

"What... Happened? Did I make you cry? I'm sorry with my words..." He hesitantly said. His voice softens when he saw Hyunjin.

"No, no! Some--" I cut him off.

"He'll tell you later. For now, let's just go to sleep. I haven't got any sleep yet." I quietly admitted.

Minho eyed Hyunjin softly for once before walking back to his bed without saying anything.

Hyunjin finally looked at me. I just smiled at him before patting him twice in the head.

"Go back to sleep. We have a schedule tomorrow." I softly said. He nodded. I waited for him to lay back down and helped him tuck himself in his blankets.

He immediately fell asleep after minutes. I, first, made sure that he's sleeping before walking to the light switch, flicking it off. I gently walked to my bed and laid down.

"Hyunjin..." I worried said his name before sighing. Soon enough, I started to drift off my dreamland.

———

I'm really sorry if this update is super delayed.

I'm quite busy because, as some of you might know, I have work and it's kinda hard to write and work at the same time. (Especially because I'm switched to night shift😭)

I think I'll only be able to update once or if I have more time, twice a day.

Please bear with me!

Either way, I hope you enjoy the story so far!

I focused on ChangJin moment for this chapter because I felt like I haven't read any stories that have their ship!

Thank you for reading and voting!❤

Hwaiting~!❤