Fifty-Six

It was our first time in Europe- first time in England. We were as anxious as we were excited about it. Despite all that, our staff felt that sending us on a scavenger hunt on foot would make good content.

"Ah. I can't do this." Mingyu grumbled and lowered the map that we had been given. We had been instructed not to use our phones for navigation or translation. Moreover, we had been split into two teams- Hanseol, Yeojun and Jaehyeon against Mingyu and I. We had been sent on two different routes with the same number of locations to visit and click pictures at for proof. The whole trip was supposed to be the same distance for both the teams- had we stuck to the path as instructed, that is.

"Mingyu-ya." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are we lost?"

"Not really. We were lost but not anymore. I found out where we are but we are a little away from where we were supposed to be." He said dryly.

I shoved the small camera that I was operating in his face. "I had told you that we should ask someone."

"Why couldn't you ask, Hyung?" He shoved the camera back towards me.

"You know how I am when it comes to English…" I pouted and groaned. "Where is Hanseol when you need him? And what sort of team division was this to begin with? The English speaker and the shameless one are together."

"Jaehyeon Hyung?" Mingyu laughed. "True. He would not have been so conscious of his language. Jun got lucky."

"Ah." I sighed. "And? Which way do we go now?"

"This way." He motioned across the street towards the right, then checked the map. "I think."

We really should just ask someone. "Mingyu-ya."

"Yes, Hyung?"

"Let's ask someone. You ask."

"I-" He snatched the camera away from me before I could avoid it. "Hyung, do this for True." He clenched his fist in encouragement. "You can do it. Fighting."

He had played me dirty by bringing True into this.

I took the map from him with a sigh and scoured for the least intimidating person. Going by my gut feeling, I chose to ask a young man who was just about to pass by us. "Um… E-Excuse me."

Damn. How nervous was I that I could barely speak? I cleared my throat.

"Yes?" He stopped. Mingyu continued filming, looking smug behind the camera.

"Uh…. We… lost." I pointed to the location we had wanted to go to on the map. "Uh. Ah. Here. How to go? Fastest… way?"

"Oh. Directions? You're visiting here? I see." He spoke too fast for me to catch anything more than 'visiting' properly, then looked at the map. "Hm. I'm afraid you're about ten minutes off. You can continue on this road till you come to the bakery and then take a left turn…"

I could not quite follow what he was saying but he was tracing the path on the map as well and I could nod along to that in genuine understanding. Besides, we had the video recording to go back to in case we needed it.

"Thank you very much." I bowed to him when he was done. "Thank you."

Mingyu also thanked him.

"No issues, chap." He glanced at the camera. "You're shooting? A Vlog?"

"What? Vlo…" I accidentally spoke Korean and looked at Mingyu who seemed just as confused.

"No. A video log. Vlog." The young man repeated slower this time and motioned towards the camera.

"Ah! Vlog! Yes. Yes." I nodded, relief washing over me instantly. "We are part of… K-Pop band. K-Pop. Name… S.T.A.Y."

"Oh, K-Pop!" He nodded. "Never thought I'd bump into one of you all. What did you say you're called?"

"S.T.A.Y." He was speaking a lot slower so I could understand him without much of an issue.

"S.T.A.Y? I'll definitely check you guys out." He smiled. "Hope you enjoy your time here."

"Ah. Thank you." I bowed. "You too!"

Wait. 'You too'?

Flustered by my silly mistake, by the time I stood straight to make amends, both Mingyu and the helpful guy were laughing. The latter patted my shoulder and spoke. "Although I live here, I'll be sure to remember that. Thanks, chap. Good luck."

I watched him walk away and then looked at Mingyu but found the camera shoved in my face instead. The embarrassment hit me so heavily that I turned away, walked to the nearest wall and buried my face in my arms. "Ah, really!"

"Hyung." Mingyu came over, still shooting. "Hyung, look here."

"This is your fault, Mingyu. Your fault." I waved an arm at him. "Go away."

He laughed again. "It was cute, Hyung. I'm sure that that man also found it cute. He'll remember us by you."

Laugh. At my expense.

I turned and began walking down the road in the direction the man had pointed out to us. "I'm going."

"Wait up, Hyung." Mingyu jogged to catch up to my brisk pace. The whole thing had been filmed and they weren't going to be magnanimous enough to edit anything out. I could already see True having a ball with this one.

We reached the park which was our final destination about forty minutes later. We had already known that we would not be the first to make it there but to actually see Hanseol, Yeojun and Jaehyeon sitting on a park bench, enjoying ice cream, spurred on the bitter sense of defeat nevertheless. The rest of the staff members were also present.

"Took you long enough." Hanseol smirked.

"Mingyu got us lost." I went over to sit on the bench that Jaehyeon was sitting on.

"We both got us lost, okay?" Mingyu countered. He'd stopped filming on the smaller camera that we had been given as the crew took over. After sitting on the other bench next to Yeojun, he placed a hand on my shoulder and sat forward. "Jeongwoo Hyung's got good content."

Don't just blurt it out to everyone instantly! "Mingyu-ya." I groaned. They were going to see it eventually anyway.

"Oh? What happened?" Jaehyeon asked with great interest.

"Nothing." I tried to brush it off but Mingyu ended up telling them anyway.

"Aw. Our cute Jeongwoo~" Jaehyeon turned on me and caught my face between his palms, squeezing and turning it from side to side, then he pulled me into a half-hug, patting my head. "It's okay. I'm proud of you for just trying to speak."

"See? That's how you're supposed to react." I scowled at Mingyu. I held no grudges though. It was all in good jest. Besides, he did take care of any talking that we had to do after that.

He was a good leader and for the sake of that, I resolved to do better on my English lessons.

We returned to our hotel soon after filming had been wound up. As usual, Jaehyeon and I were sharing a room, but Mingyu, Yeojun and Hanseol were together in the other room. We were scheduled to fly again the following morning so we decided to turn in early after having dinner in our own rooms.

"I'm going for a bath. You can go ahead and order the food. You know what I like." Jaehyeon stopped in front of our shared cupboard.

"Yes. Ah, we have to pack too." I plopped down on the bed, leaning back against my arms and dropping my head back. "I'll probably wake up early and pack."

"I might do that too." Jaehyeon nodded, getting his night clothes out and tossing his phone onto the bed. It came to rest right beside me.

"Come out fast, Hyung." I watched him as he undressed down to his pants and turned to the bathroom. "I'd like to bathe too before the food comes."

"Aw. So, no long and relaxing shower for me?" He pouted.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You really want to?"

"Just for fifteen minutes." He nodded.

"Fine. I'll bathe just before bed then."

"You can get in with me, if you want to." He shrugged.

"Nah. It's fine. I don't want to go immediately. I just want to sit for a while." I refused with a smile. "Go."

"Okay." He disappeared into the bathroom.

While I was nervous about speaking in English, I had learnt enough to at least order food. After placing the order, I returned to my bed and picked up my phone. There was nothing from Changmin yet. In two minds about it, I finally called him. Closing my eyes, I listened to the phone ringing but then it stopped abruptly.

He had cut the call.

I stared at the phone and sighed. He must have been really busy- so much so that he had to cut the call. He would usually have at least picked up and informed me that he was in between work otherwise.

Just as I had given into my disappointment for not having been able to reach him, however, my phone began ringing.

Lee Changmin.

And it was a video call.

I was presentable enough. Then again, so what if I wasn't? I answered the call, still lying down on the bed and holding the phone up to show my face. "Hello."

"Ah, Jeongwoo." The face that appeared smiled. He was wearing his earphones and it sounded a little noisy. From what I could see, he was wearing a bottle-green Shirt. His navy blue hair had been set to sit down obediently, allowing only a teasing peek of his forehead.

A kissable peek.

"Are you out?" I enquired.

"Mm. Lunch." He angled the phone to show me the plate of food before him and turned the camera around to show the reasonably crowded restaurant before turning it back to him. "I was planning on calling you after lunch. We have a TV appearance in the evening."

"I thought you were busy when you cut the call."

"Well," he ate a spoonful of the casserole. "I was thinking about you and then you called and I wanted to see you so I decided to cut your call and video call you instead."

"The first video call since the tour began." The first one in almost two months. "Is everyone there?"

He nodded and switched the camera to show me the table. Everyone was busy eating and talking to each other. Then I realised that one seat was empty. "Where's Baekjae Sunbae?"

The camera switched back to him. He was frowning. "You always look for him, don't you?"

I smirked. "He's my 04:00 am bias."

"I'm offended."

"You're my boyfriend." I shrugged. "My bias and my favourite person can be different, right?"

"Hah…" He looked away, unable to hide the smile. His reaction was almost endearing. "Baekjae's gone out to talk on the phone. I think it's about filming. He might have to go back to Korea for a bit."

"Ooh. Harsh." I winced, then paused to look at him carefully. "You look tired, Hyung."

"I feel sleep deprived. Jet lag too." He grumbled. "The make-up covers all this though."

"True. I couldn't tell at all from your shows and pictures. It's very clear right now though."

"Mm." He continued eating. "What will you do about it?"

Hm? "What will I do?"

"I'm asking you." He locked his eyes on me. "I'm tired, Jeongwoo-ya. What will you do?"

"What am I supposed to do?" I laughed. "Cheer you on? 'Hyung, you can do it. Fighting!'" I wrinkled up my nose and shook my head after I said that. "What good's that gonna do?"

He glanced around him and raised the mic of his earphones closer to his lips. "A kiss could work."

"No."

"What?" He looked taken aback.

I laughed at that instant honest reaction. Frankly, my quick reply had surprised even me. "I'm not doing it over the phone."

"Why not?" He whined, then suddenly looked up and nodded at someone else before turning to me, going right back to whining. "Why not?"

"It's useless, firstly. Secondly, it's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing? We're past all that, aren't we?"

"No." I was not going to do it. Period. Besides, doing that would have only made me curse the distance more than I already did. "Sorry, Hyung. But I don't want to do that. You'll… have to wait till you come back to me."

He pouted. "As tempting as you make that sound, I can't push you if you don't want to do it."

"Don't guilt-trip me." The look on his face made me feel bad.

"It's just a kiss." He turned his eyes to his food.

"I have my reasons." I would have caved in had he persisted though. I missed him painfully enough already. Hyung, even if you're able to sleep peacefully after all this, I won't be able to. "Sorry." I switched auto-rotate off on my phone and turned on my side, resting the phone on its side on the bed. "But I'll tell you this- I love you."

He stopped eating and looked at me, then glanced around, cleared his throat and spoke. "Say that again."

This, I could do. "I love you. A lot."

"Mm. Again." He closed his eyes and smiled.

"Hyung-ah~ I love-" I began saying in more of a sing-song manner but swallowed the words when I heard the bathroom door shut a little loudly. I looked over my shoulder to see Jaehyeon standing outside the now closed bathroom door with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Jeongwoo? I can't hear you." Changmin said with his eyes still closed. Hearing his voice, Jaehyeon looked at me in surprise.

"Sunbae?"

"Yes. Y-You're out faster than I had thought you would be." I lay on my back again.

"What?" Changmin asked, probably thinking that I was talking to him. He had opened his eyes. I addressed him. "No. I was talking to Jaehyeon Hyung. He had gone for a bath earlier."

"Hello, Sunbae." Jaehyeon said from where he stood and glanced at the screen.

"Oh. Hey." Changmin returned before frowning at me. I voicelessly returned an 'I'm sorry'. "Jeongwoo."

"Yes?"

"I'll talk to you later."

"A-Ah." No, don't go!

"You get good rest. I'm almost done with lunch too. I'll call you later."

"Mm. You too, Hyung. Get good rest."

"Bye." He hung up.

I sighed and set the phone down on the bed, looking at Jaehyeon. He wore his black pajamas and came over to sit on the bed. "Should I have stayed in the bathroom longer?"

I smiled at him. "No. It's okay. He was outside too anyway." I patted his bare back. "Wear your T-shirt. You'll catch a cold. The AC's on."

"Mm." He took my hand, holding it in his and playing with my fingers.

I chuckled. "What is this?"

"Just like that." He shrugged. "I like."

"This?"

He shrugged again. "Have you ordered the food?"

"Yes. It should come sometime now." I turned towards him and patted my stomach. "I'm hungry…" Especially so after watching Changmin eat.

"Me too." He squeezed my hand. "Shouldn't we do a Live soon? It's been a while."

"We can do one tomorrow. Together or alone?"

"Let's just do it together." He lay down next to me and turned in to hug me. "Let's give them some content."

"Right." I tapped his arm. I knew that he was just trying to comfort me. With all this work pressure and little rest and the fact that Changmin was so far away… I was grateful for Jaehyeon. He just seemed to always know when I needed this. "Hyung, thank you."

"Hm? Why?" He asked. "And you say thank you to me a lot randomly."

I shook my head. "For everything."

"This is weird. Why all of a sudden?" He looked down at me.

"I'm just genuinely feeling grateful." I closed my eyes. "Even during the city scavenger hunt earlier, Mingyu took over after I got embarrassed. He makes me feel like it's okay to not be perfect. And Hanseol's always encouraging and providing strength in his own ways. Yeojun's so earnest that he makes me want to work hard so that I can support to him too, as a Hyung." I paused. "I see why Kim PD-nim felt that we should be together."

"Is that so?" He nodded. "Then… what about me?"

"Hm?"

"What do you think about me? Who am I to you?" He asked softly.

"Hyung." I replied. "The one I can count on. The one I turn to. The one I can't hide from." I laughed a little. "Who else will I stand beside on stage at this point?"

"I don't know. Maybe Changmin Sunbae." He stated.

"Changmin Hyung's not one of us." As unfortunate as that was, "he isn't one of my members. Things like 'For Old Time's Sake' and the joint Christmas event are all we will get."

"Are you planning on collaborating again?"

"Not any time now." I sighed. "Let's just get through our tours."

"Mm. You've still got a few more-" The doorbell ringing cut him off.

"Must be the food." I moved his arm and leg off of me and got up. "Get dressed, Hyung."

"Okay." He sat up and let out a deep breath before pulling on the T-shirt that he had left on the table earlier. I went to get the food, thinking about the face Changmin had made towards the end of the call. A pang of sorrow and guilt squeezed my chest. And I had this fleeting thought that it might have better had Jaehyeon not come out of the bathroom when he had. That line of thought put me in a bigger dilemma.

How could I even think like that?

Ridding myself of that thought by smiling at the hotel staff who had brought us our food and thanking her, I shut the door and took the food in.

I'll text Changmin a little later.