Empty || Jihancheol

For Better

When everyone was almost finishing their food, Seungcheol saw Jeonghan excuse himself and leave the cafeteria out of the corner of his eye, not thinking much of it at the time. About ten minutes later, the rest of the group got up to throw their trash away and leave.

Seungcheol was just walking out of the cafeteria, when another idol approached him. It was Choi Minki from Nu'est, Seungcheol had met him a couple of times, but the two boys barely knew each other.

"Hey, is-uh-is your guy ok?" The blonde haired boy asked, his face painted with concern.

"My...guy?" Seungcheol repeated, confused by Minki's line of questioning.

Minki rubbed his forehead anxiously, "The guy in your group..Aish, I forgot his name! The skinny guy with long hair and-"

"-Jeonghan! Is he ok? What happened?!" He cut Minki off, starting to get worried again.

The boy nodded and continued, "Well he seemed fine when I saw you guys this morning but he was just puking his guts out in the bathroom a few minutes ago and I just..uh yeah that's it, I thought I'd let you know in case it's anything to worry about."

Seungcheol's heart suddenly dropped into his stomach. He knew exactly what was going on, "Thank you for telling me!" He yelled behind himself as he ran toward the main-level men's bathroom.

He burst into the bathroom, checking every stall, "Jeonghan?! Jeonghan are you in here?"

He wasn't in there though, he must've already gone back to the practice room or the cafeteria. Seungcheol left the bathroom, looking defeated.

Once he walked back up to the practice room, he saw that all of the guys were already there, including Jeonghan, who was talking to Hansol and Jisoo and he looked perfectly fine. Seungcheol turned and walked toward them and tried to act casual. He slinked his arm around Jeonghan's shoulders, walking with him to an empty part of the room where they could talk alone. He didn't want to scare Jeonghan off so he figured he'd try to play dumb at first, "Hey, uh... I saw you eat a good lunch today; Thank you."

"Uh, your welcome I guess," he chuckled, tightening his ponytail and flashing a small grin.

"I'm relieved that you're not gonna diet anymore, and now that you've gotten some food in your stomach, you won't get lightheaded during dance practice." Seungcheol said, clearly baiting Jeonghan to tell him what really happened.

The younger boy glanced around the room, avoiding looking Seungcheol in the eyes, "Y-yeah, I-uhh-I miss feeling full and not being hungry."

'Oh my god he's such a terrible liar, how have I never noticed this?' Seungcheol thought; he was about call Jeonghan out on his bullshit when Soonyoung interrupted them.

"Ok so I was thinking: why don't we go ahead and save the choreo work for tomorrow since we've already done it for so long today. We have a meeting with a guest producer in 30 minutes, we should just chill til then," Soonyoung announced, glancing at Seungcheol, waiting for him to nod in approval. Soonyoung is so considerate like that; he's always careful not to (figuratively) step on anyone's toes when he's giving directions like this.

"Anyway, what were you gonna say?" Jeonghan asked as soon as once Soonyoung left.

'This is a really sensitive subject for him, I should wait for a better time,' Seungcheol thought, hesitating before answering him, "Hmm? Oh-uh-yeah I was just gonna ask if you wanted to watch Avengers:Infinity War with me tonight?" He continued.
'Really Seungcheol? That's the best thing you could come up with? You just saw it last night!'

The silvery-haired boy thought for a moment, "Sure, I haven't seen it yet, have you?."

"No I haven't."

'What he doesn't know won't hurt him.'
•••

"Hey, we should go out to eat tonight! I'm thinking we try that new Indian place across the street." Hansol suggested as the members all left Pledis HQ.

Seungcheol glanced over to the bright, neon sign that advertised the restaurant, "That sounds good, who else wants to go?"

"Ugh, I don't like Indian food." Wonwoo whined, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"You don't like any food, do you?" Jihoon snapped back.
Wonwoo is the eternal picky eater, not to mention he has a laundry list of dietary restrictions.

"I'm sure there's something on the menu you can eat. They probably have plain beef and rice if you ask for it." Jisoo suggested to him, ignoring Jihoon's rudeness.

Wonwoo nodded his head contently as they all crossed the street to the restaurant. Once they all went in and sat down, conversations buzzed throughout the table. Seungcheol tried to keep an eye on Jeonghan, even while he was having his own conversation with Soonyoung and Jihoon. He noticed Jeonghan open his menu and study its contents, a look of incredible discomfort spread across his face; Seungcheol looked at the menu and could immediately see why. Every single entree had over 800 calories in it. 'Jisoos Christ, is this chicken supposed to be made of pure sugar?!' He thought to himself.

They all gave their orders, Jeonghan ordered some curry chicken soup, 'Oh thank god, he's getting something substantial.' Seungcheol thought.

Once everyone's food arrived, we all dug into our meals, Seungcheol's Tikka Masala was delicious by the way.

Like all of the times the seventeen members go out to eat, they wreaked havoc on the restaurant. Junhui got choked on his beef and almost died, the maknae line tried to play 'spin the knife' because they didn't have a bottle, and Jisoo and Jihoon almost got into a fist fight. At this point, everyone in the restaurant was giving them death glares. Jeonghan sat quietly, picking at his food for most of the meal.

'I wish I could go over there and give him a hug.' The older boy thought.

Most of them had finished eating and were just waiting for the check; Conversations had begun to die down. Out of the corner of his eye, Seungcheol saw Jeonghan stand up suddenly, "I'm going to the bathroom" the younger announced quietly, leaving the table.

'I know what that means' Seungcheol thought, standing up aswell, "I have to go too," He said loudly as he followed him toward the men's room.

Jeonghan's face flashed with panic when Seungcheol stood up. They both went into the bathroom and he stumbled in his spot for a moment before shrugging and heading to the urinal, Seungcheol did aswell. After they took care of their business, they went back and sat down at their table. He saw Jeonghan rub his forehead before grabbing an after-dinner mint and anxiously chew on it. 'I may have stopped him this time, but all I did was delay the inevitable.' Seungcheol though to himself, sliding down into his chair.