Wake Up | Taeyong x Idol! Male! Reader |

Chapter 10- Simon Says

"You really want to start something dont you?" (Y/n) asked with annoyance in his tone. "I'm not looking for a fight, so stop trying to start one."

"I'm not trying to start a fight, cant you tell? SM failed you," Taeyong pushed, only angering (y/n) more.

"I know! I've known since my debut. Error is a litteral error. Why do you think they gave us that name? We were the trainees that werent talented enough for NCT but too talented to let the other companies get their hands on." He said with a sorrowful look in his eyes.

"They didnt want the competition to make a good group out of us, so they trapped us with contracts and hopes of debuting. Theres nothing we can do about it now. Redebuting under a different company or even a different group would only ruin our reputations more... I wish they would've just kicked us from the training program," (y/n) started again, but then rambled on until he was only muttering to himself.

"Its ok, you guys have done well," Taeyong said, disregarding their rivalry for a moment.

"We havent done well enough..." (y/n) trailed on as his breathing became heavier. He started mumbling to himself and Taeyong could only pick up a few bits of what he was saying.

"I failed them... I wasn't good enough... We're going to disband..." it wasn't good, and Taeyong could tell (y/n) was digging himself into a pit of anxiety. Taeyong saw the rival leader as pathetic in this moment, but he couldn't help but put himself in (y/n)'s shoes. He would be worried, too if he were (y/n).

"It's fine... if anything happens, I'll just beat that Sooman bitch and run the company myself," (y/n) finally said to himself, successfully avoiding a panic attack.

"Highkey, he deserves it," Taeyong said to the other leader which made them both laugh a little.

"Look, Taeyong," (y/n) started, "I'm sorry I pusued you on stage. It was uncalled for and I shouldn't have done it."

Taeyong was surprised that the younger boy would give him a straight up apology like that. He was somewhat happy to see that they resolved an issue without fighting over it.

"I really appreciate that, (y/n)," he said as he put a hand on the other leaders shoulder with a friendly smile on his face. "We should get back before the others start to think we fought agian."

"Yeah," (y/n) replied. He didn't want to fight with the state he was in. His mental health had been rapidly declining ever since that day at the beach and he couldn't bring himself to fight. He was losing the motivation.

While some people would have seen this act as (y/n) taking the high road, he knew in his heart that he was beginning to give up. He was losing himself.

He followed taeyong down the hall until they made it the one of the dressing rooms. There he saw Chaemin and Min Su and smiled to assure them nothing had happened between the two leaders. They were relieved to say the least, but it wasnt like their leader to just forgive and forget.

"I'm proud of him," Chaemin said suddenly. Min Su looked a bit surprised, but he nodded his head in agreement.

"He's done so much for us. He's helped us get this far. We would be nothing without him," he replied. Chaemin smiled as he looked at their leader smiling at the youngest members' antic.

"He's trying, I can tell," he mumbled softly with a bit of adoration in his voice. The two older members had watched (y/n) grow since he was a trainee. He had come so far in that time. They were really proud of him.

* * *

It was time for the awards to be announced, so all of NCT and Error went to the stage. They were up against iKon for best comeback (idk just roll with it). Even though he knew he should be hoping that the song he put so much time and effort into would win, but he was silently hoping they'd lose. He didn't want the credit of their first win to be taken by the more popular group.