anodyne

chapter 16

jihoon bid his usual goodbye to doyoung by placing a soft kiss on his forehead. the younger wished him best of luck for inkigayo since the night before he witnessed as the other kept on circling around the room, practicing his lines all over and over again. doyoung was pretending to be asleep, jihoon would be worried if he realized that because of him the younger couldn't rest, doyoung wanted to omit such a situation and just let the other whisper some incoherent words to himself, looking at the ceiling not to peek at the paper sheet held in his hands.

doyoung tried to chase his silhouette in a dimly lit room, and as it kept on moving to and fro it had a very similar effect upon him to counting sheep. eventually, his eyelids became heavy like stones, jihoon's light whispers sounded like a melody flowing somewhere in the background and the drowsiness overcame him.

what he couldn't know about was that after he became unaware of the reality, the older lifted the duvet to cover his upper body properly and then went out of the room. it was an hour after midnight and a notification popped up on his main screen.

"sungchanie birthday"

so he made a call.

coming back to the present moment, doyoung sat down on the sofa in between mashiho hyung and yoshi hyung, waiting with anticipation to monitor the show. besides these three the room was abundant with several other members who could make it today. unfortunately, junghwanie wasn't here due to his school schedule, junkyu and yedam went to the studio, and haruto had his rap practice at this hour. so in the living room happened to be seven members, the ones who could support jihoon today through the screen.

doyoung wished they could all go and cheer him up in the backstage of inkigayo just like hyunsuk did once. sadly these days the restrictions were even extended so it would be careless to gather round in one space. his expression must have altered inadvertently cause not long after he felt someone nudging him from the side. after he looked up his eyes met with mashiho's warming gaze.

"what is it? your favorite idol is about to show up soon and yet you seem somehow down," he said, making doyoung smile shyly.

he was most probably the biggest fan of jihoon and every member knew about it.

"it's nothing hyung, I just had a thought about how it would be if we could be there for him."

mashiho nodded his head, gazing around the room. suddenly his attention was drawn by something or someone. at this moment as if he had just made a disruptive discovery, gushed excitedly.

"hyunsukie hyung!" the said boy started a little on the armchair and turned his head towards the sofa. he lied a worried gaze upon mashiho most probably thinking that something bad has happened.

"yes, our shiho?"

"they let you go to inkigayo backstage once right? to support jihoon in his first days. did you have any problems getting in? did they want to refuse at first?"

hyunsuk brooded over things for some seconds with his eyebrows knitted and after a while answered.

"I just asked our manager if I could surprise jihoonie. he gave me consent with one requirement we had to record a t.m.i.," doyoung's eyes twinkled.

there was a chance he could do the same. mashiho gazed at him with a grin which the younger reciprocated. he mouthed a brief thank you to his hyung and got up to give their manager a call.

and the man agreed. he had to do only one thing in return - record jihoon's reaction to his attendance once he wraps up today's episode. without any hesitation he grabbed his things and went out of the dorm, heading to the respective building with a huge smile plastered on his face. he was so excited to see his jihoonie hyung. and he was so excited to see his reaction as well.

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