Forty-Two

Once everyone had given their accounts of what had happened, we left Kim PD-nim's office, planning to go straight home. We had not gotten too far from his office when we ran into Youngjae Sunbae, Jaemin Sunbae and Changmin though. They were probably on their way in from some program that only the three of them needed to attend.

After all that had happened, seeing Changmin like that after probably a week was a welcome refuge.

"Oh. You're one member short?" Youngjae Sunbae observed. Changmin had met my eyes and given me a smile as soon as he had noticed us and Jaemin Sunbae had waved. When they got close enough though, Changmin's eyes fell from my face to my shoulder and his smile vanished instantly.

"Blood?"

Oh. "A-Ah. Not mine though. Yeojun… There was a bit of an… incident." I replied before he could misunderstand and worry too much.

"An incident?" Jaemin Sunbae asked, all three of them becoming serious at that.

"He's fine- Yeojun." Mingyu said. "We had… a stone thrown at us when we were leaving after work and he had gotten hurt. Manager-nim has taken him to the hospital, just to make sure that he's okay."

"A stone? You got attacked?" Jaemin Sunbae asked, aghast. "How- Why- No. Are you all okay?"

"We're fine. It was just Yeojun." Mingyu replied. "Although we're all a little shaken up by what happened…"

"This is terrible!" Youngjae Sunbae genuinely looked angered by it. "To get attacked like that-"

Jaehyeon nodded. "It is rather troubling."

"Jeongwoo." Changmin suddenly called and stepped up to me, catching my wrist. "Let's go get that washed."

"What? Hyung-" But the blood stain was already dry…

"Just come." He pulled me along and walked away from the rest of the group, leaving them an "I'll bring him back."

I offered no protest. I had wanted some time with him too.

He brought us to the nearest men's restroom before letting go of my hand. He stood before me and looked at me in concern. "What happened?"

"We told you already. Yeojun got hurt." I stated again. "This is not my blood."

He sighed and knit his brows together. "I already heard that but… ugh. You have no idea how my heart stopped when I saw that." He pinched the part of my T-shit that was stained with blood between two fingers.

I deserved that for walking around wearing a bloody T-shirt. "I know, Hyung." I smiled. His concern was heart-warming. It made me reach for his hand. "I'm okay though. Don't worry."

He seemed less on edge then. "You had a stone thrown at you. Even if you did not get hurt, that can't have been easy to come to terms with. Jun's hurt too. So, even if that's not your blood, I still have reason to be worried."

I looked down briefly when he put it across like that. "Well, it was scary. The stone missed me by a hair-breadth. I felt it go by my face. It could have hit any one of us. And when I turned to look for who did it, no one was there. No one stood out to me as particularly suspicious. Yeojun got hurt and I could do nothing."

"Look at me." He said and I brought my eyes back to him. He reached over and touched my cheek. "I'm sure they'll find something. Remember that Sasaeng fan case from a while ago? They have already found them and handled them, right? Let's trust DayBreak here. There was nothing anyone could have done at that point. Don't feel bad about it."

"Mm." I nudged my cheek against his palm. "I told you. I'm okay."

"I… overreacted earlier, didn't I?" He chuckled.

"You did." I admitted that I had felt so too. "But I'm not complaining."

"You'd better not. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever and then when I get to meet you, you're wearing a blood-stained T-shirt. I'm a sensitive man."

Don't I know that?

I sighed. "I feel bad for Yeojun though."

"He's okay, isn't he?"

"He is. He should be. Ah… but… you know? He's our youngest member and we're looking after each other and living together but he's been getting into trouble a lot… The convenience store incident, the hate comments and now this… He's a strong kid but I feel so helpless sometimes. Today, when Manager Park said that they should go to the hospital, he looked like he wanted someone- one of us- to go with him but..."

"You really are the mom of the group." Changmin placed a hand on my head as if to comfort me. "He'll be fine. You'll see him soon."

Right. "Hyung, we can't stay in here long. The others are waiting. Can't wash this off right now anyway. I'll take care of it after getting home. Shall we just go?"

"You can have my shirt. I have my practice clothes with me." He offered.

"That won't be necessary. We're going home now anyway." I shook my head. "Thank you though."

"For offering? Please." He smirked. "It might be the only way I'll get to see you wearing my clothes anytime soon."

"Wha-" I stared at him in surprise. "Unbelievable. You just-" Then I remembered where we were and looked around. The stalls were unoccupied and we were the only ones there. I sighed and pressed a palm to my chest in relief. "Don't just say something like that so suddenly."

"There's no one here. I'm careful, Jeongwoo." He stepped up and caught me with an arm around my waist.

I panicked a little. "It's the men's restroom! Anyone can walk in at any moment!"

"Then kiss me quickly before anyone comes in. We can leave after that." He lowered his voice.

"Le-" I began telling him to let go but only a breath escaped my lips with how he leaned in. The smile he gave me after that told me that he had realised that he had won. Receiving no further protest from me, he closed the gap and kissed me. Once. Twice. He took my lower lip between his lips and nipped at it teasingly before kissing me again. All I could do was clutch his shirt and give in, hoping desperately that people would stay away from the restroom just long enough to allow us a few more seconds.

When he pulled away and smiled at me after that, I felt a tightness in my chest. If only we did not have to hide out in the washroom like this… If only we could get more than just a few minutes every week or two if we were lucky enough to get even that…

Damn it!

"Whoa!" He exclaimed in surprise when I hugged him. He patted my back and smiled at me tenderly. "What is it?"

I shook my head. "There's no one here right now." Just let me be. Please, just let us be.

He exhaled and wrapped his arms around me tightly, rocking from side-to-side a little. "I know. I miss you too."

"I got so used to seeing you everyday during the collab and even though a month's gone by since…" I grumbled. "I don't like this."

He chuckled. "You're bring cute. Why are you being cute?"

I pouted. "I'm not being cute. I'm sad, Hyung."

"Hm." He continued patting down my hair. "You know what? Once the rush is over, let's go on a date."

I scoffed. "When is that going to be? Two months later?"

"Ah… You're putting me in a difficult position here…" He said sadly.

"No. It's not your fault. I'm just… expressing."

"What?"

"…That I miss you." I said softly. "Even though we talk everyday- Ah." I didn't need to say anything out loud. He knew how I felt already.

He gave me a strong squeeze, another quick kiss and then let go. "We should go while we can still walk away from each other."

"You did not have to say it like that." I frowned.

"Sorry." He said and turned towards the door, taking my hand. "Come on."

He released my hand the moment we had left the restroom. The others were still where we had left them. Youngjae Sunbae laughed on seeing us. "The stain's still there."

"It's dried up already." Changmin said bitterly.

"You got triggered by the blood. Admit it. You got worried." Jaemin Sunbae smiled mockingly.

"Stop already." Changmin looked at me before going to stand with his group. "We needed to talk too."

"Talk?" Jaehyeon raised an eyebrow. "You both talk plenty otherwise anyway."

Jaehyeon!

I frowned at him.

"We still had something to talk about..." Changmin returned calmly. "We should get going now though."

"Mm. You all, take care of yourselves, okay?" Youngjae Sunbae told us.

"We'll run into you again." Jaemin Sunbae smiled and gave a short wave.

Soon after, they were gone and S.T.A.Y had followed Manager Kim who had been waiting for us down to the parking lot. On the way, I fell into step beside Jaehyeon.

"What was that about, Hyung?"

"What?" He asked.

"Changmin Hyung." I frowned at him. "Why did you have to say that?"

"I was teasing. No need to get so defensive about it." He replied casually. "It's no big deal."

Teasing? "That… With everyone around-" I looked ahead.

"Fine. I'm sorry. I'll be more discreet about it next time." He chuckled and then let out a breath. "Can't blame him for dragging you away though. Without context, that blood stain would scare anyone."

"I hope Yeojun's doing fine." I would be satisfied only after seeing him in person again.

"Physically, he'll be perfectly fine. The incident itself has shaken all of us though." He responded in all seriousness. "There's just no telling what people are capable of doing nowadays."

"But… I don't understand what we have done to deserve this." I kept my eyes to the ground in front of me.

"It's not really about our having done anything intentionally. Don't think about it too much. Some things just cannot be explained." Jaehyeon lay an arm over my shoulders and pulled me in closer as we walked. "Let's just keep doing our bests and keep looking after each other."

I watched Mingyu and Hanseol walking ahead of us. They seemed to be engaged in a serious conversation too. S.T.A.Y, Changmin and even the rest of 04:00 am… I could only hope that no further harm befell any of my important people.

Jaehyeon glanced at me when I had gone silent. We were near the van by then and neither of us spoke a word more.