markoeun : bye (on hold)

ch 3: duty

"what do you guys think you're doing?" their furious dance trainer stood at the practice room's door with both hands on his waist.

upon hearing his voice, everyone else also stopped at their track, screams and laughters were no longer heard.

"good afternoon ssaem," they all gathered and greeted the trainer.

anyone could tell the trainer was upset, he came late to today's practice because of an urgent matter and trusted the kids to practice by themselves until he comes. however, he came to witness them goofing around during practice time.

"koeun and mark."
"yes ssaem!," the eldests answered in sync.
don't we have two leaders here? why can't you guys take care of your dongsaengs?" he confronted the 99z, still trying to stay calm.

the two couldn't utter a single word.

the trainer continued; "especially you koeun. what the hell is 'koeleader'? you can't even keep them in control while i'm gone just for a while? and you want to be future of kpop?"

"..."

"isn't that mark hyung?" a whisper broke the silence.
"stfu hyuck" jaemin mentally facepalming at his friend's spontaneous comment.

"pffttt" the maknae failed to contain her snicker whilst holding back a laugh, which made the trainer lost his temper; "KIM SUNGKYUNG YOU FIND THIS SITUATION FUNNY?" finally raising his voice.

sungkyung was taken aback, tears starting to pool in her eyes.

"sorry ssaem!" koeun mustered up her courage, apologising on their dear maknae's behalf.

a sudden feeling guilt crept up to their conscience upon witnessing koeun's responsible action, everyone lowered their head except mark, who kept glancing at koeun beside him. in fact, koeun had suggested them to practice right away upon their arrival to the agency, but the dongsaengs plead for some free time. and mark, being the soft-hearted elder brother he is, convinced eun to let their dongsaengs play just for a bit.

"s-sorry ssaem!", hyuck stuttered but still trying to be courageous as his eunie-noona.

everyone understood the signal.

everyone was at fault; koeun who allowed her dongsaengs to waste time, mark who pleaded eun on the dongsaengs' behalf, hina the second in command who knew she had the power to support her unnie's words, jaemin who was teasing others, sungkyung who lured jaemin further into a playful scene, hyuck the first person who asked to have some free time in the first place, jeno who got into a stupid argument with sungkyung, herin and jisung.. well herin and jisung did nothing wrong. herin was practicing her solo performance and jisung was working on his dance part while waiting for others to finally begin practice together.

mark softly uttered; "kids..", "sorry ssaem!" everyone loudly apologised at once, acknowledging their misbehaviour.

the trainer sighed, suddenly feeling bad for raising his voice at the kids. it was not his intention to scare them. truthfully, he always feel delighted whenever they laugh and joke around in practice room but this is not the time to be playing, they must focus during practice hours.

the trainer gave up, his expression softened looking at their tearful eyes; "i bought drinks and snacks for everyone, you have 20 minutes to freshen up before we begin our practice this afternoon".

"yes ssaem!". 

[time skip]

after spending a day full of hectic schedule; school, group practice, filming, vocal lesson, dance lesson, and another group practice, the mmc squad finally have time for themselves. tonight, the managers brought them to han river for a quick healing time before returning to their dorms.