Crybaby

8 - Comeback

"No, no chance. He's not picking up," the head manager threw his phone angrily onto the table. "Damn it, I'm going to kill him when he shows up!"

Ateez and their team stood in the backstage area of the fan meeting. The boys stared at the ground, feeling awkward. The team was really pissed. Yunho hadn't shown up and hadn't contacted anyone. At least they could see that he was occasionally online in the chat program, typing but not sending, which meant that he was alive and hadn't done anything to himself...

"I don't want to drag his family into this, but if we don't hear from him in a few hours, we'll have no choice but to call them. And if necessary, the police. None of you have any idea where he is?"

"Of course not. We'd like to know as well..." Hongjoong replied bitterly. He was also not pleased with the situation.

"Okay... Then we have to make the best of it. We'll say he got sick last minute. Focus on the fan meeting and don't let anything show," the manager instructed the boys.

"We will," Hongjoong responded.

The boys gathered as they were about to go on stage. "I'm really worried," Seonghwa said.

"Me too..." Wooyoung agreed, looking sad.

Yeosang sighed deeply. "I'm sorry I can't help. I really didn't notice anything last night. I was so tired..."

"It's not your fault! Stop blaming yourself!" Wooyoung said.

"Exactly... No one is to blame except Yunho himself... I just really want to know what's going on," Hongjoong added.

"It doesn't matter. Disappearing like this and leaving everyone hanging is bullshit. Such a cowardly, shitty move," Mingi spat out aggressively, causing the others to look at him in surprise.

"Mingi... He must have his reasons," Seonghwa tried to calm him down.

"Yeah, hyung. It has to be something serious, he would never just leave like that," Jongho said seriously, visibly worried and disturbed by Mingi's words. The others could only agree.

"Come on, Mingi. Take a deep breath. There's no point in freaking out now... We just have to wait, he'll show up eventually, and then he'll owe us some answers," Hongjoong said.

"You can bet on that. He'll have a lot to explain..." Mingi was still fuming and found it hard to contain himself. "He's such an idiot."

Yeosang's eyes widened in shock at Mingi's harsh words. But before he could say anything, they got the signal to go on stage.

As they moved into position, Hongjoong instructed Mingi to calm down and keep a low profile on stage.

--

Mingi's POV

After the fan meeting, they all went to the KQ office. It was early evening already. Hongjoong worked in his studio, Jongho practiced singing, and Seonghwa, Yeosang, San, and Wooyoung trained in dance. Mingi, on the other hand, sat in a small, separate studio, listlessly working on a new song. No one had said it out loud, but secretly they all hoped that Yunho would just walk through the door and everything would be okay again. Their management team was furious, and the rest of the staff were not spared either. It hurt Mingi to see how worried their stylists were, for example, and how the younger ones were completely distraught. There was also the lurking danger that something might leak to the press or that sasaengs would find out what Yunho was doing...

Mingi felt another wave of anger rising within him. He tried to distract himself and typed a few words, only to delete them immediately. This process repeated itself over and over. Finally, he closed his notebook and admitted to himself that he couldn't concentrate. He reached for his phone, as he had done countless times that day. Nothing. No response from Yunho to his messages and calls. No sign of life.