Requested by @Millie
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"Hey, hurt me," Wooyoung said.
Yunho frowned. He really had no energy to deal with him today. What was usually some light-hearted banter felt like a deliberate attempt to distract him. He felt like he was going to burst into tears at any moment. There was so much that he had to get done. There were two whole dances that he had to master by Wednesday - which was three days away - and just thinking about it was enough for him to spontaneously combust.
It wasn't fair. Here were other people enjoying life, having fun, and here he was...
Who was he kidding? Comeback season was brutal for everybody. He knew that Wooyoung's way of dealing with it was by talking to others. Yunho just appreciated it if everyone just left him alone during this time. He was always five seconds away from a breakdown.
"Not now, Wooyoung, I'm tired," he managed to mutter out. It didn't seem like Wooyoung heard it, but he did understand what Yunho told him. He backed away. He looked almost hurt.
Yunho sighed. He felt bad. But he couldn't help it.
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All day, he found himself in the midst of a battle between his temper and his usual calm demeanour. If Seonghwa ummed and ahhed while talking a bit too much, Yunho found himself getting irritated. If Hongjoong tried to be a good leader too much, he got annoyed. It got to a point where Yunho had to pinch himself to keep his mouth shut.
If he caused any arguments now, there would be no resolving them. It would blow over into a huge fight and end with him having to apologize personally to everyone. Hongjoong would give a long lecture. Yunho knew better than to put more stress on everyone else's shoulders. He was a better person than that.
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The lights in the dance studio seemed to be grating down on him. He didn't know how to do one part of the dance. It made sense when he did it slowly, but as soon as the music started, he would freeze up and forget everything. Yunho had been starting and restarting the song for the past two hours, hoping that his mind and body would somehow understand.
Nope.
Once again, as soon as the chorus part came up, he blanked. His arms gradually fell to their sides as he fought to remember what the next move was.
"Shit, shit, shit..."
He hurried to his laptop to see what the move was. Oh, he had to jump and then arms to the right, and then...
Everything seemed to be blurring together. He couldn't do this anymore.
Yunho glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven PM. It was Tuesday. In about fourteen hours, he had to be in this studio, ready to present this dance to the others and he couldn't even do it properly.
Sighing, he ran a hand through his sweaty hair.
He couldn't feel anything except the crushing pressure of the deadline weighing on his heart. If he just had one more day, he wouldn't be stressing so much! He'd spent all of Sunday and Monday working on the other dance - which turned out to be much harder than it looked - and there just wasn't enough time.
Yunho crouched down to take a sip of water. He caught a glance of himself in the mirror. He'd barely gotten any sleep last night. The only things circling in his mind were the dances, the counts, and the positions. It was driving him crazy.
Heavy eye bags drooped on his face. His gaze was hollow and exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to just go home and rest.
But instead, he forced himself to rewatch the dance video and then get up to try again. There was a schedule to maintain.
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