Why am I different?

Chap 4: Do you like him?

"Well, Minjun said- "

Taecyeon sat up so fast on his bed it left his head reeling.

"What?! What did he say?!" he almost shouted.

Silence.

"Khun?!"

"If you hadn't interrupted me, I would have told you anyway," Nickhun replied, rolling his eyes since he knew the guy on the line wouldn't be able to see it. He had been startled into silence by the sudden question.

"Sorry," a dry laugh followed by an impatient,"so?"

Nickhun's a very sharp guy. Right now, he's starting to get suspicious.

"Well, Minjun said that maybe you are taking on too much in your schedule and it's taking a toll on you. He had produced two of our albums after all and knows how stressful it can be. Plus, you have your own schedule on top of that. Especially those late night radio DJ-ing. He was against you doing them, you know? He thinks that you're trying to make up for the time when you have to do your service. Ironic, since we thought HE was the one trying to compensate for HIS leave," Nickhun ended with a dry chuckle of his own, worrying for both his members.

"That's all?" came the pained reply.

"He wanted to talk to you. But he thought it wouldn't work since he already did that and yet nothing improved. He noticed your mind weren't all there during our fan meeting earlier too. So, he asked me to talk to you. He seemed to think that I'd be able to do something. Hah!" he scoffed, "I didn't think you'd call me first, though. Simply put, he's just worried about you."

"Yeah?"

Skepticism this time.

"Hey, come on man. What is it? There's something between the two of you isn't it? Did you guys fight?"

"Nah, why would you say that? Nothing happened between us." Taecyeon replied, adding "Sadly..." at the end as if wistful.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe cause you literally jumped out of bed when you heard his name? Or the fact that I'm becoming the messenger boy between you two?" Nickhun shot sarcastically.

"Besides, even the kids can sense something happening," he continued.

A sigh and more rustling on the other end before Teacyeon replied with a noncommittal "we're not fighting."

"Are you not gonna ask what the kids said? See? You lost your shit wanting to know what Minjun said but you couldn't care less about the rest," Nickhun pressed, wanting to hear the truth.

"So you guys have been talking 'bout me, huh?"

No heat behind the words, so Nickhun knew he wasn't angry.

"More like a certain worried mother hen who looked a lot like Minjun had been asking the kids if you had confided in them. Junho thought he must've done something wrong since you wouldn't let him come near you and Wooyoung thought you hated him since you were ignoring him. And Chansung, well, he thought something happened in the waiting room the other day when you zoned out. Minjun agreed. I saw the blank look on your face at the time too. So what happened?" he explained at length.

Another sigh, bigger and longer this time, as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders.

"I don't know how to put this into words..."

"Try me," he encouraged, wanting to help his friend.

"I feel...like...Minjun treats me...differently... compared to you guys," Taecyeon started off, finding it very difficult and having to stop a couple of times to find the exact words.