Chapter Text
“Is your ankle okay?” Serim asked Wonjin, who was sitting alone in the corner of the practice room, spinning with his chair. Serim smiled and offered him a protein shake.
Wonjin nodded, felt a bit shocked that Serim still trying to talk to him even after he tried to ignore the older. Still, he took the bottle from Serim's hand and bowed a little as a thank you.
“Glad you're okay,” Serim said again, gently ruffling Wonjin's hair. Serim looked quite surprised because Wonjin didn't move away, but he looked very pleased. He tapped Wonjin's shoulder, “get well soon so we can dance together.”
With a nod, Wonjin let Serim walk away.
The group practice was over, and this time it was Allen and Wonjin's pair dance practice. It's not even late at night, but Wonjin was visibly tired with his uncomfortable ankle, so Allen rubbed his back for encouragement. Allen sat with him on the floor when the choreo teacher and his partner demonstrated the dance move for them.
“You good?” Allen gently asked, as his eyes still focused on the teacher, but his hand found Wonjin's nape and pressed two points on the sides of Wonjin's backbone to give him a calming massage.
“Thank you, Hyung.” Wonjin smiled at Allen, then focused back on the teacher. “I hope my ankle won't be troubling us with the pair dance.”
“It won't be,” Allen assured Wonjin, gently patting his shoulder. “The teacher even made the choreo with less legs move. We'll do good. You'll do good.”
Wonjin nodded. “We'll do good.”
“Okay, you two, come here,” the teacher called and both of them immediately stood and walked closer. The practice went smoothly, and like Allen said, the choreo didn't use too many leg movements (Allen was the one to stand on one knee) so Wonjin didn't have any problem with it. The practice ended with the teacher praising them and giving them both a pat on the shoulders.
As they waited for their manager to come and pick them up, Allen sat with Wonjin on the sofa facing the main door. The air conditioner was off but the air was cool and Allen just started to doze off when Wonjin mumbled. Either he wanted Allen to hear him, or Allen actually had a good hearing.
“Why didn't he hate me?”
“Who?” Allen asked sleepily. He didn't want Wonjin to talk to himself, so he forced his eyes to open and looked at Wonjin. Then a name easily slipped into his mind. “Serim?”
Mutedly, looking a little surprised, Wonjin nodded.
“He's a saint,” Allen said, then suddenly remembering that he also said that to Woobin. Strangely he could have a heart to heart conversation when he was sleepy. Like when he was with Woobin the other day. Maybe he was an honest person when he's sleepy. That's a new fact he just realized about himself.
“But I purposely avoided him,” Wonjin grumbled, holding his head with his hands in distress. “I even act like I don't see him almost all the time.”
“He'll forgive you if you talk to him.” Allen simply gave Wonjin some advice, closing his dry eyes to stop himself from rubbing them with his hands. “You just need to talk to him. Apologize if I may add. As simple as that.”
“Is it that simple?” Wonjin whined.
“That simple,” Allen calmly repeated, moving his hand in the air on his left side to find Wonjin's thigh and giving it a gentle pat. “It's that simple, Wonjin-ah. You can do it.”
Wonjin just sighed.
Before the rehearsal, everyone was stretching on their own, with the members in the center of the stage (the floor that had a different colour than the rest of the floor), and Wonjin chose to stretch next to Allen. He scoffed when Allen suddenly did a split and asked him if he wanted to try it. Wonjin quickly shaked his head. He just recovered from a sprained ankle. He should know better that he shouldn't do too much stupid stuff after that.
Well, Wonjin knew. Knew that he shouldn't do more stupid stuff (example: annoy other members and get irritated instead), but he just realized how stupid those stuff were after he did it. And per usual, he tried to mess around with Jungmo, forcing the older to play “baseball” with him, only to break his heart over the fact that he wasn't able to hit any bottle caps. And today Allen was surprisingly clingy to him, so Wonjin casually did another stupid thing.
The teacher was quite irritated. He held Allen's forearm to his face for a more detailed inspection before looking at Wonjin with a sigh. “This won't unravel,” he declared, but Allen laughed, and Wonjin just gave the teacher a hidden sheepish smile behind his mask. At the end of the rehearsal Wonjin didn't even know how and when Allen broked free from the cable tie.
“Do you prefer fried rice or pasta?”
Wonjin was tying his shoelace when he heard the question. He didn't immediately look up, because he wasn't sure the question was mentioned for him. But a shadow of someone standing in front of him made him think again.
“Wonjin-ah.”
“Oh.” Wonjin looked up, instantly meeting Serim's eyes. He stood up, looking at two packages in Serim's hands. “Pasta?”
Serim smiled, offering Wonjin the package in his right hand. He looked a bit awkward after Wonjin accepted the food, but he still smiled. “Hmm. Okay. Enjoy your lunch.”
Wonjin nodded, quietly watching Serim who nodded as well and turned around. Before Wonjin could think of a word to stop him, Serim already turned back, smiled slightly.
“Hmm, in case you don't want to eat alone, want to join me?” Serim asked, then he looked at Wonjin's expression and quickly added, “With Minhee, Taeyoung, and Hyeongjun as well. Maybe I should gather all the boys–”
“Okay.”
“Oh?” Serim blinked, looked a little bit surprised, but his smile got wider. “Okay. Come.” He turned around and started to walk.
Before Serim could take his third step, Wonjin urgently called him. “Serimi Hyung.”
Serim stopped, but didn't look back.
“I'm sorry.” Wonjin was fidgeting in his place, suddenly felt embarrassed and he impatiently waited for Serim's answer. Maybe Serim wouldn't accept his apology instantly, but at least he could get a reaction from him. And if Serim really doesn't want to accept his apology today, he'll try again tomorrow–
“Okay.” Serim looked back, smiling so sweetly that Wonjin felt like his heart was broken because of the guilt. Serim quickly walked towards Wonjin, holding his hand, and pulled him to walk with him toward the big table in the corner of the hall. Serim seated Wonjin on the chair, whispering in his ear before taking a seat next to him. “I missed you, Wanji-ya.”
Wonjin slowly nodded, watching Serim opening his food package, and mumbled, “me too.”
“Hmm? Did you say something?”
“Nope.”
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Serim should know better not to walk around on his own. Well, he did have a scene with Eunsang at the empty corridor one time, but right now he was around the corridors of waiting rooms, so he wasn't that “alone”. He actually just felt bored, so after finishing the Overdose stage, he left the members in the waiting room and walked around outside.
“You're really brave.”
Serim turned around, finding Eunsang walking closer to him, holding a paper bag.
“Or just stupid.”
Serim scoffed. “Well, I'm safer around many people,” Serim said, gesturing to the doors of occupied waiting rooms. “If I scream, someone will definitely hear me this time.”
With a smile, Eunsang nodded. “But it's still better if you're not roaming around on your own.”
“You're gonna make another trouble?”
“No,” Eunsang quickly answered. He offered the paper bag in his hand towards Serim. “I was… not me that time. Please forgive me.”
Serim hummed, accepted the paper bag and smiled at Eunsang. “I understand.”
Eunsang looked at Serim with his eyes widened. “You do?”
Actually, yes, Serim understands. After what happened with Allen a few days ago, Serim knows that “rut” is actually a dangerous situation, and the ones who were in that state are quite problematic. Probably because their emotions are mostly hard to control at that time and their strength doubles, so they just feel the need to prove themselves to other people. Like what Allen did. “Just don't forget your dots ever again.”
“Yeah. Of course.” After a short pause, Eunsang hesitantly stretched his hand for a handshake. He was visibly shocked when Serim instantly took his hand and shook it. With a genuine smile, on top of that.
“Keep the good work, Eunsang-ssi.”
“You too,” Eunsang smiled a little with a relieved face, then added timidly. “Seonbae-nim.”
Serim nodded and flashed his best smile.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Woobin was watching the whole scene from his hiding spot next to the stairs. When he noticed Serim was going out on his own from the waiting room, he immediately followed him. Blaming his “overprotective” traits, he already followed Serim for a few minutes before Eunsang showed up from another waiting room and went straight to Serim.
Before his brain could process what his body was doing, he found himself already hiding behind the column right next to the stairs. He was watching Eunsang carefully, preparing to take flight if he saw even the smallest bit of arrogance from Eunsang's body language. But to his surprise, Eunsang didn't do anything close to “arrogance”. He looked like a meek puppy in front of Serim.
Eunsang told Serim something and gave a paper bag to the older. Woobin didn't even notice the paper bag's whereabouts earlier. Maybe he was focusing too much on Serim's expression and Eunsang's body language. Luckily his hiding spot has a perfect angle where he could see Serim's face clearly. Well, Woobin's eyes aren't that good, but he was wearing his glasses at the moment so he could see Serim quite clearly.
They only talked for a moment, and Serim just said some words after taking the paper bag, with a smile. The fact that Serim really smiled at Eunsang made Woobin speechless. He didn't know if it was because he felt jealous, or if he was dumbfounded by Serim's generosity. Then before Serim and Eunsang went separate ways, Woobin once again saw Serim smiled so sweetly at Eunsang and he scoffed.
“He's truly a saint.”
Woobin almost cracked his own neck because he snapped so quickly to look back. On the stairs, a little right side behind Woobin, was Wonjin. Woobin shoved Wonjin to stand right behind him, in case Serim busted them. “Did Allen Hyung tell you that phrase?”
Nonchalantly Wonjin nodded, then smiled, “I thought he told me that so I have courage to apologize to Serimi Hyung. I didn't know he meant it quite literally.”
Woobin scoffed. “Yeah.”