groupie

-five-

Chan sits silently on the couch next to EunChae, his hand in hers while the others watch him from the other side of the room. He can feel their eyes on him and it's getting on his nerves.

"Okay—that's it—I've been sitting here the last ten minutes getting glared at—I have things I have to do. I've got a collab stage I need to go make sure is in order." Chan slips his hand out from EunChae's, no longer able to handle the pressure of the judgmental and protective boys.

EunChae doesn't stop him. She doesn't even look up to watch him leave, instead she stares down at her lap and takes a deep breath. Even if he didn't say a single word to—even if he didn't really acknowledge her existence—him just being there actually helped calm her down. The fact he didn't talk actually kind of helped. The silence paired with his warm and comforting hand was more than enough.

"Chae—" HyunJin starts, afraid she'll start crying again now that he's gone.

"Hm?" EunChae hums, lifting her head to reveal a weak smile.

"You good?" Felix hesitantly approaches her, worried he'll set her off again if he gets too close without her approval.

"Oh—yeah—good as new." She nods, getting up onto her feet refreshed in a strange way.

"Really—like—he—he didn't make it worse? He didn't say a word to you—didn't even really look at you—but it helped?" HyunJin mumbles, baffled beyond belief at the ridiculous reality of it all.

"Mhm—it helped a lot." EunChae confirms, picking up part of the stack of signed albums.

"So—so you're ready to go hand out more albums?" MinHo questions, watching her eyes closely for any sign she's hiding something. They know all too well that she can stuff a lot of her emotions down to the point they're almost undetectable to an untrained eye—but they're trained. They can see it.

"I mean—she's not necessarily lying. Is she a hundred percent—no—but she does seem like she's doing alright. Maybe we should go do the albums to finish them before our live performance. I feel like that might hit her harder." SeungMin reaches out to take the albums from her, refusing to let her do the dirty work. The last thing they need is for the marker on the albums to smear and ruin her white stage outfit. His black top will go unharmed, so it only makes sense he carries them.

"Let's go! There's some groups I'm dying to see!" JeongIn grabs ahold of EunChae and Felix's hands, dragging them toward the door excitedly.

"What the hell are we gonna do about that?" SeungMin mumbles as he nods toward the 3Racha boys' waiting room while following the others passed it.

"I have no fucking idea, but we gotta do something." MinHo sighs, eyeing ChangBin through the open door as he pokes at Chan and chuckles.

"You've got a connection—use it for something helpful. He clearly knows the asshole—maybe he can tell you if he has any ill intentions toward our Chae." HyunJin suggests, keeping in step beside the others despite wanting to join the younger boys and EunChae a few feet ahead of them.

He's the second oldest, he has to help make these decisions—well not including EunChae. She is technically the second oldest, but they never put any of the heavy responsibilities on her.

"I don't want to make JiSung uncomfortable. It's wrong to try and drag that kind of shit out of him. He doesn't deserve to be drug into the middle of it." MinHo shakes his head, unsure of forcing the younger to tell him things Chan told him in private.

"I mean—he doesn't have to tell you details—just if he wants to cause problems. He can't be mad at you for looking out for Chae. If he and that Bin were the two that got her the present—he clearly knows who she is and what she likes—so he had to have told them some things about her." SeungMin joins, supporting HyunJin's suggestion.