You Rock My World

It's your maternal instinct

A knock on the door caused Seonghwa to jump and he glanced towards the sound.

"Hey, it's Jongho. I need to talk to Seonghwa hyung."

Seonghwa cautiously removed his arm from Hongjoong, only feeling a slight tug as sleepy Hongjoong attempted to pull it back before letting go. He had been awake for a while scrolling through his phone since he'd slept a lot during the day.

Setting his phone on its charger, he put on a pair of slippers and headed to the door, stepping out into the bright hallway and shutting the door lightly behind him.

"Hey, what do you need?" Seonghwa asked as his eyes adjusted to the light.

"I know how we can stage your performance for Hongjoong hyung."

Seonghwa felt his heartbeat quicken.

"Really?? How?"

"Hongjoong told us about the big showcase for JYP before we officially become trainees, so if we performed it at the end of our showcase, we can surprise Hongjoong hyung!"

Seonghwa stepped back a bit, processing everything.

"Wait—what showcase?"

Jongho's face fell.

"It's really not a big deal, Hongjoong hyung just told us about it today—"

"It kind of sounds like a really big fucking deal."

"Okay, fine—it is. But we're going to be ready. We're already planning to put in late hours all week—"

"We have to be ready! This is such a big deal for him! He really likes it here! If we don't make it, he'll never stop beating himself up over it," Seonghwa panicked, runnning his hands through his hair.

He knew he'd never really wanted to stay here but he also knew how much it meant to Hongjoong. And after everything he'd done for Seonghwa, just being able to stay at his top choice company was the least he could do for him.

"Hyung, we know. And that's why we need to do his song as the closing act."

"But—you've barely even seen the sheet music! You don't even know what it's going to sound like all together—it's too risky to pull together for the last song!"

"We actually ran it together today during practice."

"How?! Hongjoong was right there!!"

"Actually...he had to step out for a bit. He was really out of it all practice so I told him to take a break. While he was gone we played through it a bunch and it sounds really good, hyung."

Seonghwa was grateful they'd put in so much effort for him but he couldn't get past Hongjoong stepping out.

Was he alright? He'd seemed fine yesterday when he came back. Was he really that good at hiding it?

"Hyung. He's okay, he was just really worried about you. But...maybe you could still check on him. For me?" Jongho looked at his feet.

"Yeah, of course. Thank you for telling me."

Jongho nodded.

"Thank you. If you're feeling up to it, I was thinking we could meet up early before practice tomorrow and rehearse it with you. And maybe keep meeting early until the competition? That way Hongjoong hyung won't find out since he tends to run late."

Seonghwa laughed and nodded.

"Sounds like a plan. Thank you again, Jongho. You've really held down the ship lately. I'm really sorry I haven't been here for you guys."