Jane's had enough of the bullying and speaks up
Jane sighed as she waited for the coil in the vending machine to slowly wrap and let her candy bar drop. No.Mercy was almost done and she had never been as stressed, exhausted and worn out in all her years of training. Not to mention some of the boys were still giving Changkyun the cold shoulder and Jane was far from over it at this point. Plus, her morning hadn't started off great. She woke up late, her body and mind to exhausted to hear the ringing of her alarm so she had missed breakfast. She was more pissed that no one had decided to wake her up and chalked that up to be because she was befriending Changkyun and the others still felt like he was a replacement.
She had forgotten to take her clothes to the laundromat because she passed out as soon as they had arrived at the dorm and was stuck wearing the same clothes she wore yesterday. Not to mention that Jooheon had taken what seemed like hours in the bathroom and Jane barely had time to pee. She wasn't in a group with Jooheon or Changkyun, and while she loved all the others just the same, she was the most comfortable around those two and was feeling a little awkward. On top of her already shitty day, her candy bar was now stuck in between the plexiglass and the coil. She groaned in frustration, hitting the machine a few times with no luck.
She gave up, too tired to fight a machine, and stomped her way back to the practice room. However, she saw a very angry looking Jooheon stomp out of one of the small studios. She quirked her eyebrow and then her eyes widened a little, remembering that Jooheon and Changkyun were supposed to be working on their rap part today. Changkyun had barely gotten any sleep last night because he was so anxious about the encounter. Her nostrils flared and she was close to seeing red. She quickly walked towards the studio, knocking twice and waiting for an answer. "Changkyun-ah, it's me." She said and she heard what sounded like a small sniffle. "I'm fine, Jane. Just working."
She rolled her eyes, opening the door anyways as Changkyun was furiously trying to wipe his tears away. Jane saw red and was ready to go beat Jooheon to a pulp, but her best friend needed her right now. She sat down quietly in the chair, grabbing a hold of one of his hands. "What happened?" She asked and Changkyun shrugged his shoulders. Jane scoffed. "Im Changkyun! Don't you dare sit there and lie to me. I saw Jooheon walking out angry. And you're crying. Now tell me." Changkyun sighed, a few more tears escaping his eyes. He told her what had happened, how Jooheon told him at first he had no intention of even uttering a word to him, to how he felt like he had too because they were on the same team right now, and how Jooheon said him and others could only feel like I.M was promised to debut if he joined. He was sobbing again after finishing and Jane was ready to break necks.
"Those little-" Changkyun clapped a hand over her mouth. "The cameras are rolling." Jane rolled her eyes, standing up with a new look of determination on her face. "If they think that this is okay, no. I'm going to give them a piece of my mind." Changkyun grabbed her arm, pleading with her to just let it go but she shook his grasp off, handed him some tissues and marched towards the practice room. She didn't bother knocking, throwing the door open and stomping in, unplugging the stereo that was playing music. Very annoyed, tired, and sweaty trainees looked at her. "Baek YunJae! What are you doing?" Hyungwon snapped and then shrunk a little at her hard glare.
"What am I doing?! WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING?!" Minhyuk and Hyunwoo looked at each other and back at Jane in shock. She never raises her voice, always quiet, even when talking. Kihyun narrowed his eyes, challenging her to speak informal again. "We're older than you, YunJae. Watch your tone." She scoffed, rolling her eyes and marching right up to the five boys. "If you're so much older than me, why can't any of you act like a decent human being?!" Hyunwoo narrowed his eyes, about to scold her again but Jane didn't stop.
"All of you!" she pointed her index finger at each member. "Changkyun did nothing wrong to ANY of you! Nothing! And you're treating him like the shit on the bottom of your shoe!"
"YunJae, watch your-"
Jane's eyes snapped to Hyunwoo and he immediately shut up. Jane was scary when she's mad and this is the first any of them have truly seen her mad. "You don't tell me how to speak when you can't even be supportive of someone in the same position as you! And you!" She turned to Jooheon who was now looking at the floor, not meeting her eyes. "YOU BOTH LITERALLY LOVE THE SAME THINGS AND YOU TELL HIM YOU CAN'T EVEN SPEAK TO HIM, LET ALONE TELL HIM THAT YOU FEEL HE CHEATED HIS WAY HERE?!" Jooheon cringed at her accusatory tone, but he couldn't deny it.
Jane took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. She looked up, a death glare plastered to her face and aimed at all five of them. "I thought you all were decent people. You're my friends, you have always been supportive of me and each other. But right now, none of you are deserving of a debut if this is how you treat people. Guess this show really brought out true colors." She turned on her heal, stomping out of the practice room. Hyungwon, Hyunwoo, Minhyuk, Kihyun and Jooheon all stared at each other, not really sure what to say. Hyungwon fell to the floor, legs tired of standing and to be honest, shaking a little from the rare Jane he just experienced.
"I don't think I've ever seen her so mad." He breathed and Jooheon hummed in agreement, guilt already tugging at his heart strings. Kihyun sighed, plopping down next to Hyungwon. "Are we really that bad?" Hyunwoo asked to nobody in particular. "I feel like we are. Or were. Or am." Kihyun said. Hyunwoo furrowed his eyebrows. "We should apologize." The others shot Shownu a surprised look, but they knew it was true. They needed to apologize for their behavior. After all, it really wasn't I.M's fault for his situation. And so that's what the five sweaty, tired (and still a little frightened) trainees did. It didn't fix everything, but it definitely made Changkyun feel a little more at ease and lift some of the guilt the others had been feeling.
When Changkyun returned home from practice that night, he walked straight to Jane, hopping on her bed and bear hugging her. She pretended to be annoyed but he noticed the small smile playing on her lips. "I love you. I hope you know that. Thank you so much. For everything." Jane cocked her eyebrow and patted his hair, not following. "They told me you yelled at them today." She scoffed, rolling her eyes and pushing Changkyun away from her. "Good. I hope they know I meant every word I said. Idiots." Changkyun chuckled, running his fingers through her hair. "They apologized." Jane opened her eyes wide, a little shocked. "Good. They should have."
Changkyun chuckled again. "I also think you scared them. They said they've never seen you so angry and loud before." She half-shrugged her shoulders. "They were being bullies and I don't like bullies." Changkyun smiled softly and the two sat in silence until Jane had fallen asleep. Changkyun sighed, pulling the comforter over her and kissing her forehead before climbing into his own bed and falling asleep feeling more accepted than he ever had when he first joined.
And he had Jane to thank for that.
