Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

After Sungeun left, the tension in the room was... very uncomfortable.  Heeseung called for a short break and to meet after dinner, to which no one argued.  K went off somewhere while Jake and I went to our rooms to take a nap.  Heeseung, Sunghoon, and Jungwon went to their room.  When dinner was over, instead of starting practice like usual, Heeseung gathered us around for a team meeting. 

"Did you guys talk about something in the purple room?" I asked quietly to Jungwon.

Jungwon nodded, "Kind of... you'll see," He said, which made me a little nervous.  I had an idea of what Heeseung was going to talk about, but I was unsure about what the reaction would be.

"I'm sorry, but we need to talk about something important," Heeseung said, catching all our attention. "And, rather than just me talking about it, I think it'd be good if we all can talk about it together."

K nodded, "Yeah, go ahead."

Heeseung hesitated but went into detail about what he wanted to talk about.  He explained to K how it's sometimes difficult for us to talk to him or suggest new details for the performance as he is the oldest.  Jungwon also talked about the balance of power in leading during our practices. 

Jake, Sunghoon, and I stayed silent, as we weren't really sure what else to add or where this was going.  When Heeseung finished what he wanted to say, I was surprised when K suddenly started crying.  I shared a look with Jungwon.  I could tell Heeseung was also trying hard not to cry.  Eventually, K got up and left the practice room.

I felt fucking horrible, K was never one to cry.  I've only seen him cry during the eliminations, and even then he was the one wiping everyone's tears.  "Do you think he's mad at us?" I asked quietly, pulling my knees up to my chest.

Heeseung gave me a small smile, "The leader position is a hard spot to be in, but that shouldn't jeopardize us.  Yet at some point, it got like that."

"Maybe we were being too considerate," Sunghoon mumbled, "You know? We didn't want to hurt each other's feelings so we couldn't even bring it up.  But I think, we should all be honest with each other, to be a good team."

"We should go find him, no?" I suggested, knowing that K was probably somewhere on this floor, by himself.

Jungwon nodded, "Yeah, let's go.  He's probably in the lounge."

━━━━━━━ •♬• ━━━━━━━

Despite how difficult it was, the conversation actually helped our team a lot.  Slowly, our practices became more and more fun and inclusive.  I think we finally found our team rhythm.  Just in time because the last two days flew by in a blink.

"Ah, this stupid..." I let out a sigh as I reached behind my neck to fold down my turtleneck.  I was given a black turtle neck to go under my red blazer.  It was really starting to annoy me.  I kept trying to have the front folded down, but at the same time, the back kept coming up.

Jungwon must have seen my struggle because he was laughing as he walked over to me, "Need help?"

I pouted, "This stupid sweater... it doesn't stay down," I mumbled, taking off my jacket to fix it better. 

"Here," Jungwon didn't even wait for me to say anything before reaching up and folding it down for me.  "Don't want it too high?" He asked, moving behind me.

I pulled my hair over my shoulder, "No.  It gets itchy," I muttered as Jungwon tugged it down more until it was comfortably halfway up my neck.  "Thank you," I said once I felt Jungwon let go.

Jungwon smiled, "It's no problem, Chae," He grabbed my jacket and I thought he was going to hand it to me, but instead, he just draped it over my shoulder, "Don't wanna ruin it, do you?" He questioned, holding it out so I could easily put it on.