Request by: Mochithatsfluid
Being an idol definitely presents hardships, whether it's physical exhaustion from dance practice and schedules, or mentally hard situations. All idols experience their fair share, but sometimes it's hard to get out of that mindset, especially when there's an endless amount of hate online to reinforce those intrusive thoughts.
Ni-ki didn't like to focus on hate, he knew that people just wanted to try and get into his head and try to frame him for things because he was the youngest. He avoided reading things about himself because of this but even he sometimes found himself getting sucked into the rabbit hole of netizen twitter posts.
He seemed to always be the victim of hate, particularly in posts claiming he was a bully.
It started with people yelling at him for jokingly calling sunoo chubby, and then when he accidentally blew out the birthday candles with his hand.
He never meant to do those things, and he certainly never meant any harm from them but people seemed to take every opportunity to call him out for it, regardless of how silly.
This week was no different, he ended up seeing some posts about him after the video of their "bite me" stage dropped.
"ni-ki is the worst dancer of this group."
"he's not mature enough for this concept."
"those girls are probably so uncomfortable dancing with a child."
"ew, ni-ki looks so weird in this dance."
"he's not old enough for this type of dance, he looks like a toddler."
"literally can't dance."
"he should go back to Japan until he's old enough to actually perform."
"ugh, ni-ki is just a brat."
The comments flooded the page and ni-ki couldn't even hide his frown as he scrolled through them.
Of course his strange mood didn't go unnoticed, all the boys took note of his odd silence and the way he frowned at his phone. At breakfast, ni-ki didn't eat much, just mindlessly pushing his food around on the plate, his eyes glued to the surface of the table.
"riki-ah? is something wrong?" heeseung asked as he watched the boy's movements.
"hm? Oh no hyung, I'm fine."
"are you not feeling well today?" jake chimed in.
"no, I feel fine, why hyung?"
"well, you've barely eaten anything and you seem kinda down riki."
"oh, sorry, I guess I'm just not very hungry."
"you're sure you aren't sick?" jay asked.
Ni-ki forced a smile and nodded.
"I'm sure hyung, don't worry, I'd tell you guys if I was sick."
They seemed not entirely convinced but it was obvious ni-ki didn't want to talk so they dropped the subject and finished breakfast.
They got changed and headed to dance practice. They were doing some work with their choreographer today so they had to be on their A game.
When they arrived, they greeted the man politely and began their warmups before starting the practice.
The choreographer taught them some new moves for their newest song, working with their coordination and synchronization.
Ni-ki found the choreo a bit difficult, the footwork was far more intricate than their previous dances had been and he wasn't retaining the steps as quickly as the others.
