Rise of a Star - a Minsung Story

Chapter 18

Author's note

This is not proofread as always. I plan to edit all the chapters because I've noticed some typos or wrong words because of bRaiN laGs xD

Anyway, I think I'm just gonna give up and stop promising to post weekly. I'm really busy with school and preparing for my exchange year, so I'll just say I will update as often as possible from now on. I'm sorry!

Hopefully, you still have fun reading - thanks for all the reads btw!!! - and I wish you a lovely day <3

Akira

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The new week started and everything was back to normal. Jisung and Minho had to go to the police station to both give their own statements, but besides that nothing special happened. Jisung was busy studying for exams, as was Minho since his finals were coming around, and every other free minute they had, they spent training. Felix and Minho had to take their standard classes with all the other trainees, while the rest was busy learning a ton of choreographies for their songs. But for some reason, nothing seemed to be working when it was just the six of them.

"Stop! Jeongin, you have made the same mistake during the past four runs now. It's okay to take a little longer but I'd like to finish with this choreo so we can move on to the next one", Stray Kids' choreographer scolded the youngest, as he made an obvious mistake. Jisung glanced at the younger worriedly, he could see how the exhaustion was taking its toll on his friend. But it wasn't only Jeongin, everyone had reached their limits. "Do you mind if we take a short break? We've been practicing for six hours and have only taken one break, I think we could need ten minutes to regain some energy", Chan asked politely and much to everyone's delight his wish was granted. "Alright, you get ten minutes. But I expect everyone to come back more focused than ever", with those words, the choreographer left the studio.

Jeongin bit his lip and stumbled into Chan's arms, a quiet whimper erupted from his throat, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry". His voice was higher in pitch than usual, and Chan furrowed his eyebrows. The leader knew exactly what it meant when their youngest member became whiny and talked with a higher voice; it meant he was close to regressing. Well, usually this wasn't necessarily a problem; the older loved to take care of his little, and all the other members enjoyed playing with little Jeongin as well. The problem now was that they did not have any time for him to regress. Their choreographer would freak out if the one member that is bad at dancing in comparison to the others would head back to the dorm and miss the last couple hours of training. But Jeongin also wasn't the one to blame, nor was anyone else since it was already past 3:30am in the morning. It was no wonder all of them were tired.

Chan rubbed his temples, a habit of his whenever he was stressed, and softly caressed Jeongin's back. "You don't have to be sorry, Innie. You know that. Do you think you can go on for a little longer? I promise you I will cuddle the whole night with you, if you do well now", Chan honestly hated saying something like that. He didn't want it to sound like his little would only get cuddles and get treated nicely if he worked hard. Especially since it was a lie, Chan would always cuddle him, no matter how good or bad he did during practice or at school.

Jeongin's response was obvious as he whimpered loudly and held onto the oldest as tightly as possible. Chan pressed a loving kiss on his forehead, "It's okay, don't worry. You don't have to go on, you can go and rest. But Daddy can't come with you, okay? I have to finish practice with everyone else, but I promise I'll be there when you wake up tomorrow". Jeongin only babbled some incoherent words, too little to answer in actual sentences, but he seemed to be okay with it for now. Chan carefully picked him up and turned to face the others, "I'm going to get him to bed, you can keep working, I'll be back as soon as possible". "It's alright, I'm positive we'll finish soon anyway. Nobody can focus anymore, it's too late", Jisung answered, and Chan smiled gratefully, before leaving with the youngest.