STAY By My Side

Chapter 3: Blood, Tears and Sweat

Who's ready for Chapter 3? Me! Hehe 😉 Anyways, let's see what happens next....

Chan's POV

"Hyung? Wake up. It's already 7:00 AM," I heard a sweet voice whispering in my ear. I slowly dragged my eyes open and saw Minho sitting next to me on the bed. "Good morning! Did you forget that we have to do a Vlive today?" he asked me and I nodded saying "Yeah I remember. But we still have time for that, don't we? I slept just an hour ago," I whined rubbing my eyes. He held both my hands and we looked into each others' eyes. "Don't rub them. They will redden," he said slowly. For some reason, Minho looked different today. Not ugly, don't get me wrong. He's never ugly. Just that there's some emotion in his eyes I can't really point out. "Alright, why did you wake me up so early? Is there anything we have to do today other than the Vlive?" I inquired while trying hard to recollect our schedules. "No. Hyung, I want to go on a walk. Please come with me? I know you need sleep but can you sleep after coming back? " he asked me with a pout on his face. How can I ever deny the pouty 'Cutie'? So I had no other choice. "Fine. Did you ask Manager hyung? Did he agree" I looked at him and he nodded his head in approval. I just asked him to wait for me in the living room while I changed into my sweatpants and hoodie. Then we both went out with our masks on.

We were walking quietly for a while, I was still thinking about modifying the tune to suit our style. "What are you thinking?" I heard Minho say. "Nothing," I replied not wanting to spoil his mood talking about work right now. "Stop thinking about everything including work for 10 minutes. These 10 minutes you are with me, please focus on me," he requested. And suddenly, out of nowhere, he started singing Focus on me.

"Neon jigeumman saeng-gaghae
Jogeum deo soljighae jyeodo dwaenika
Now focus on me (now focus on me)"
I smiled and sang along. After that we both burst out laughing. I think this is the first time I laughed whole heartedly in a while. "Thanks Minho," I said. Minho stopped laughing and looked at me puzzled. "Wae? What did I do?" he asked me. "I just needed this walk, I guess." I started walking again making sure to check if Minho was following me. "Wait, hyung! I'm hungry, let's get takeout for everyone?" I agreed to him and went towards the nearby roadside takeout place. After getting the food we walked back to the dorm in comfortable silence. Surprisingly, I realized that I haven't thought about work even though we were not talking. I really did need some fresh air. I saw Minho smiling which made me smile too.

Han's POV

Aah, I hate this day. As if waking up with a freaking headache isn't enough, I have to deal with the one and only Hwang Hyunjin! Our vocal and dance coaches wanted us to help each other in our weak areas which is dance for me and rap for him. This is like hitting a hungover person with a hammer on his head. Whatever! At least Minho hyung will be there to make it a bit bearable. I just want to get this over with. I entered the dance practice room to see Hyunjin sitting alone doing something on his phone. Maybe Minho hyung went to the bathroom. "Hi," I heard Hyunjin say when I was putting my backpack on the floor. "Yeah, hi," I replied and started stretching. Minho hyung was nowhere to be found even after a while. "Where's hyung?" I asked and he looked at me confused. "Chan hyung left early saying he had some work," he went back to his phone. "And Minho hyung?" he creased his eyebrows. "Didn't he tell you that he was visiting his parents today?" his question left me in surprise. "So wait. Are we the only ones here right now?" I asked with my mouth wide open. "Well, I see no one here except you and me," he said smirking. Aah, I hate that smirk of his. "Fine, whatever," we got into positions to practice.

While dancing, he kept on pointing out my mistakes. I know he's better at dancing than me and he just wanted to help but he didn't have to do that every single time. He does this on purpose when it's about me. He even supports the others when they do small mistakes. "Can you stop pointing out my faults for a minute?" I half shouted at him in annoyance. "I'm just trying to help, Han. Deal with it," he said and turned towards the mirror. Yeah, right. I rolled my eyes and got back to practice. After a while, we started focusing on our rap. "Gosh! That's not how you do it. Can you not miss the beat one damn time?" I saw him flinch at my words. "I'm trying okay?" he said and went back to rapping. "No Hyunjin. You keep missing the beat. Have you ever seen Changbin hyung miss a beat? Why can't you do it like him? I wouldn't have to deal with this if you could just follow him," I said rubbing my forehead. He stood up all of a sudden, "I can't do it like him because I'm not Changbin hyung. I'm Hyunjin and this is how I am. I'm trying my best so stop acting like I would want to spend my time with you any more than you do," he shouted at me before taking his stuff and leaving the room. "Great. And he has mood swings too," I huffed before going back to the dorm.

Minho's POV

I came to my house to visit my parents. I had been talking to them for over 2 hours. Just now, I had my dinner and got ready for bed. After washing up, I fell on to the bed. My mind kept going back to that morning walk I had with Chan hyung. I'm happy I could distract him for at least sometime. I loved the way our voices crashed and flowed like waves. And the way he smiled with his dimples on full display was just so adorable. Why doesn't he smile like that everyday? No he will. I will make him. Mission 1: Make hyung smile at least once everyday. The more I think about it the more I fall in love with his smile. I think I have something for people's smiles. I started feeling tired due to the practice and traveling today so I soon fell asleep.

Hyunjin's POV

I came back to the dorm and plopped down on the couch. What Han said, kept replaying in my mind. "When did you come hyung?" Seungmin sat besides me. "Just now," I replied and got back to my sulking. Anyways, why am I feeling so bad for something that idiot said? I was confused at myself. "Hyung, let's play something," Jeongin said hugging me from behind the couch. "I'm not in the mood Jeongin. Some other time," I said sternly. "Please hyung, play right now. I'm bored and Seungminnie is irritating me anyways." "I was irritating you? Liar!" Seungmin stood up and came over to Jeongin. "Yes, you did. I'm not lying," and they went back and forth arguing childishly. I couldn't take it anymore. "Guys, shut up the both of you. Why is everyone hell bent on irritating me today!?," I said stomping my way to my room. I didn't even take a look at them. I just went to my room and locked the door before plopping down on the bed, face flat. My eyes became blurry and that was when I realized that I was crying. Why the hell am I crying? Over something that idiot said? Forget it Hyunjin. I tried comforting myself but at the end I gave up. That night, I cried myself to sleep.

Changbin's POV

When I was working on the lyrics, I heard a loud thud. I went to check what it was. As soon as I opened the door, I saw Felix standing with his back facing the now open door. Wait, is he talking to himself? "Lix? What are you doing standing here?" he jumped and turned quickly towards me. "Oh hyung! When did you come? I mean... do you need something?" I looked at him confused. "You are the one in front of my room." I laughed and continued, "I just came to check what the noise was. Did you hear that?" I asked him. "Oh yeah, that. Hyunjin was angry about something. He just went in and slammed the door shut," he said. "Oh, must have been Han," I mused out loud. "Yeah, looks like they didn't get over their bad blood, yet," I nodded to what Felix said. "But, what were you doing in front of the door?" my curiosity took over me. "Oh... Uhm... I was just... uhm... here to ask you something," he stuttered. "What's that?" I questioned and he said "Oh! Uhm... I just... felt like.. and... uhm... wanted to cook something. Should I bake cookies or cupcakes?" "Oh, this is what you wanted to ask? I was expecting something more," I averted my eyes in disappointment. "What... What do you mean hyung?" he asked me. "Oh... you should bake cupcakes," I smiled at him. "Okay. Will you help me? Please?" he asked me pouting. "Of course. Do I have a choice?" I smiled before going with him.

So I was kinda happy today and thought of including moments of all the ships in this book. Even though they are not all happy. I hope you guys enjoy these moments. 😝

The title of the chapter aptly describes the content in this. So, Minho put his blood into making Chan laugh, Hyunjin's tears (my poor baby 🥺) and Felix sweating to ask Changbin something. Hope you got my drift, haha! Anyways, I'll meet you again soon. Have a great weekend, y'all!