[M] DO IT FOR THE FANS [YEONBIN]

27. Business partners

Both Soobin and Yeonjun knew it was impossible for the latter to avoid questioning about what had happened, but fortunately all TXT members and the rest of the crew were way to busy during the rest of the day to focus their attention on that matter..., for the time being, at least.

But the unpleasant feeling in the pit of Soobin's stomach didn't go away, even though Taehyun didn't seem to pay him or Yeonjun any special attention throughout the day.

By the time the group's work was finished it was already late evening, and the members inevitably met at the dressing room.

"Thank you for your hard work", Beomgyu said, sitting on a chair near the entrance to catch his breath after the incredibly long day.

"Good work...", Huening Kai replied, sounding completely fatigued. "Jeez... I stayed up late last night, I thought I could sleep the whole day today... I thought I was going to pass out a couple of hours ago."

"I feel you", Beomgyu replied.

They weren't really allowed to complain too much about work, due to both cultural and professional reasons. But all the members knew how worn out everybody was.

Soobin tried to change clothes as fast as possible in case Yeonjun was done before him, but he also didn't want to leave his hyung alone to face any awkward conversations. But maybe if they were both fast enough, they could avoid...

"Well, Yeonjun had plenty of energy today. Even though I bet he stayed up late as well", Kai chuckled, smirking towards the eldest member.

Yeonjun simply smiled and shook his head. It was one of those situations were trying to make up excuses would probably be get him deeper into trouble.

"Please be careful, hyung", Kai gave up when he realized Yeonjun was not going to take the bait.

Some of the members were close, but not enough to even drop the honorifics when speaking. Huening Kai joked with Yeonjun regularly and yet, being younger than him, was unable to say something like «How can you be so careless as to let that girl scratch your back like that? And how could you not even notice? Are you stupid?», which was probably along the lines of what he was actually thinking.

Some of the members were close, but rather than friends they were all business partners.

"Yeah, we can't brush it off like when we were trainees", Beomgyu added. He was referring to the countless times young members of the company were caught with hickeys or marks, or even in the act when making out with other trainees, inside or outside practice hours. Beomgyu himself had been caught a couple of occasions during his years of training.

"Sorry for the inconvenience", Yeonjun answered, making sure his voice sounded annoyed enough for the others to drop the topic, and so they did. He really was lucky he was the eldest.

Soobin failed to come up with any words that would let Yeonjun know that he didn't mean to let him take all the blows by himself but also wouldn't raise suspicion among the other members, specially since Taehyun remained completely silent while changing clothes in the same room.

So Soobin just bit his tongue and waited some seconds after Yeonjun left the room before going after him.

But before he could catch up to the elder in the hallway, Taehyun approached him from behind.

"Hyung, may I speak with you?", and he raised his voice so it would reach the eldest, who walked ahead of them: "You too, please, Yeonjun-hyung."

It was inevitable, but still Soobin felt a lump in his throat and his heart shrank. Too insecure to answer, he stared with wide eyes at Taehyun, mouth slightly open as a thousand thoughts made their hair inside his mind, trying to merge with each other in the form of a believable excuse... And then Yeonjun walked towards them, expression as calm as ever.