Minho and Seungmin both jumped up when Felix entered. "Felix! We were so worried-" Minho cut himself short when he saw that Dongmin had a tight grip on Felix's arm and Felix was wincing with pain. "Let go of him, Dongmin,"

"Let him go." Seungmin repeated, speaking clearly and firmly, leaving no room for argument. "Or I'll call the manager."

"Threats don't become you, Seungmin." Dongmin smirked. "See you later, lix," With another slight twist of his arm that made Felix gasp, he left.

Felix sank onto the couch as Minho and Sungmin anxiously made space for him.

"Felix, you okay?" Minho asked, touching his arm gently. "Does it hurt a lot?"

Felix muttered something incoherently. Then he said, "Did you talk to Jisung?"

"Yes."

"How is he?"

"Missing you," Seungmin said at once.

Felix closed his eyes and settled into his pillow. "That's what he says." There was no mistaking the bitter tone of his voice.

"Felix, come on."

Felix didn't respond.

Crash!

" !# #!%#& !"

"Language, Changbin!" Chan came rushing over. "Did you just break a plate?"

"No, of course not!" Changbin looked down at the mess, then looked up at Chan with a sheepish grin on his face. "I broke two,"

" ! $( *!)!"

"Language, hyung."

Chan peeked at Jisung. Jisung was lying on his bed, not saying a word. His computer was open in front of him, like it'd been ever since they came back from the practice room, but his eyes were glazed and he wasn't paying attention to the music. Chan could tell because he'd been playing the same track on repeat ever since he'd opened the computer.

Chan walked over and closed his laptop. "That will waste your battery."

"Huh?" Jisung seemed to come out of a reverie, confirming Chan's theory that he hadn't really been listening to the music.

Chan sat down next to him."What's up?"

"You're bothered about that Felix thing, right?"

"Changbin," Chan jerked his thumb over his shoulder, "Clean." he made a 'zip it' gesture.

"I'm not going to talk about it." Jisung said firmly.

"Okay." Chan said softly, stroking Jisung's hair. "Will you at least tell me who Dongjin is? "

Jisung sighed. "It's not a who; Dongjin is two people. You take the Dong from one name and you take the Jin from the other. Dongmin and-"

There was a knock on their door.

"Changbin, get that will you?"

"I'm cleaning."

Chan muttered under his breath as he stood up to open the door. At the door was a guy that was pretty tall and looked like the korean ideal type. He had big eyes, broad lips and a friendly smile on his face. His curly hair flopped over his face and his dark eyes crinkled as he smiled.

"I'm Hyunjin," he said. "Are you Bangchan?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Is Jisung there?" Hyunjin tried to peek into the room.

"Ye- no." Chan's suspicions immediately arose. Hyunjin, he thought, ends with jin, be careful, Bangchan…

"Ye-no?" Hyunjin raised his eyebrows.

"No." Bangchan said more firmly.

"Oh," Hyunjin looked slightly disappointed. "Well, do you know where he is?"

"No, sorry."

"Ok, thanks. When he comes back, will you let him know I came?"

"Right."

"So?" Jeongin asked eagerly as Hyunjin entered the practice room. "What did he say?"

"He wasn't there."

"Oh. Where was he?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ask?"

"Yes!"

"Are you sure?' Jeongin doubted his hyung really had the initiative to do that.

"Yes!"

"Hmm, well, I think I should go and check just in case."

"You don't trust me?!" Hyunjin cried as Jeongin stood up.

"No."

"How dare you?!"

"Can you ever be trusted?"

"Fair enough."

Chan opened the door to see a guy with a very cute babyface, looking a little like a crocodile. His eyes were nearly squeezed shut with the force of his smile and his dimpled cheeks and braces made him even more adorable as he beamed at Chan with a grin that melted his heart.

"Hi… is Jisung here? I'm Jeongin."

Check: does his name end with jin? Is gin close enough? No? Then okay…

"Yeah, he is."

"Has he been in the dorm since he left the practice room?"

"Yes- wait, how do you know?"

Jeongin smiled. "Seungmin and Minho told me."

"Well, yeah, he has. Jisung!" Chan yelled back inside the room. "There's someone here for you!"

Jisung came racing to the door. "Oh." his excited expression faltered visibly. "Hi, Jeongin."

"Hey, why are you so disappointed to see me?" Jeongin laughed, hugging Jisung.

"I'm not, I'm not!" Jisung returned the hug.

"Oh sure, you totally weren't expecting Felix."

"Well, I mean, not really, not anymore…"

Jeongin released Jisung as Jisung ushered him into the dorm. Changbin, wearing rubber gloves and an apron and brandishing a broom, looked up at him.

"Jeong...in." Jeongin started to greet him then noted his attire.

"Changbin. Chan made me do this, as punishment for breaking two plates." Changbin extended a hand and shook Jeongin's.

Jeongin turned to Jisung. "Hyung, can I talk to you? Alone?"

"Sure."

Jeongin guided him out of earshot and started to whisper. Chan, straining his ears, managed to catch a few words. "Favour… group… debut-"

"I'm sorry, Jeongin." Jisung cut him off firmly. "I've got my group and I want to debut with them." he spared a glance in Chan and Changbin's direction.

"So all our plans to debut together, all the promises that we would wait for each other… does that mean nothing now?"

"I- Jeongin, you know JYP probably wouldn't have to put us together anyway."

"Really, hyung?" Jeongin lifted an eyebrow. "That's your defense?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Chan said politely, coming over. "But if you want Jisung to debut in a different group, I'm afraid that concerns me and Changbin too, you see. We're all part of a group now. And, forgive my bluntness, but if you're his friend, you should be proud of him for making a name for himself."

"I-" Now it was Jeongin's turn to be flustered. "Of course I'm proud, I really am; I listen to all your songs, hyung, 3racha is amazing-" he bowed in acknowledgement to Chan and Changbin. "-and I'm not saying that we should disband that, but hyung, we need you."

"For what?" Changbin came over from cleaning.

"Go back to cleaning-"

"There's trash to clear here, hyung!"

"There's nothing here!"

"Oh you're right; if you're not counting yourself."

Chan hissed and slapped Changbin's arm.

"Hyung, the trainee show-" Jeongin stopped and hesitated.

"Just tell me," Jisung said impatiently. "You can trust them."

"-showcase requires 9 people this year. We don't have enough people."

"And why exactly are you suddenly so eager to join the trainee showcase?"

Jeongin glanced at Changbin and Chan, then visibly relented. "Dongjin's getting worse every day, hyung. According to Minho, Dongmin hurt Felix's arm. Nothing serious," he added quickly, "But you get my point. If we join the trainee showcase as 9, then there's a high chance we'll get picked and Felix will be away from Dongjin. Even if we don't, Felix will have to train with us most of the time and that will limit the time he'll spend with Dongjin."

"Who are the 9?" Chan asked.

"Oh, Seungmin, Minho, Woojin, me, Hyunjin, Felix and… 3racha?" he looked hopefully at them. "All of you are welcome to join. So you see, it's not like splitting up, it's just debuting as part of something bigger."

"Hey, did Hyunjin come here just now?"

"Yes. And you told him Jisung wasn't here," Jeongin pursed his lips.

Jisung gasped. "Oh, hyung, why would you do that?"

"I was being cautious!" Chan protested. "You just told me Dongjin was two people; one was Dongmin and you told me that the other guy's name had a jin in it, so you know, Hyunjin… it doesn't hurt to be careful."

Jisung rolled his eyes.

"Changbin, what do you think about this?" Chan asked.

"I'm sorry, but I say no," Changbin said, looking apologetic, "We won't have time to train for the showcase anyway, it being so early this year. Besides, we don't know you guys."

"You can get to know us!" Jeongin said earnestly, "Anyway, PD-nim would put us with people we don't know to debut, wouldn't he? We're here to become idols, right? Shouldn't we put all else aside to do this?"

"Uh hyung, can I talk to you?" Changbin dragged Chan to the side. "Okay, look, I really don't think these guys are ready to debut."

"Changbin!" Chan was shocked.

"I'm serious, hyung. At the monthly evaluation, did you hear Jeongin singing? He's-"

"I think he's got potential." Chan said quietly.

"Okay, yeah, but don't you think he needs more time? I heard him in a vocal class and well-" Changbin shrugged. "Maybe with a year of training, he could turn into a great vocal, but now..."

"And you know Woojin-hyung? He has a really nice voice colour, but he needs to develop. Minho-hyung is a fantastic dancer, but his vocals still need work. Hyunjin is a very powerful dancer, but his breathing is a bit off so his rap sounds unclear. Felix I don't know much about, but he's not Korean apparently, and he's having some trouble with the language and pronunciation. Seungmin I haven't seen much of but he's got a good voice. It just doesn't stand out."

All the while Changbin had been talking, Chan had stood there with his arms folded. "Are you done?"

"Yeah."

Seriously, Changbin, you can't spare a bit of compassion for these guys? They're trying to help their friend."

"And get a free ticket to debut along the way."

"That was out of line, Changbin," Chan hissed, casting a glance at Jeongin, who appeared not to have heard. "So, according to you, only the three of us can 'make it'?"

"I mean, not to be boastful or anything, but yeah. Don't you want to debut with the best? Don't you want to be a talented group that will lead the fourth generation of kpop?"

"And what if we aren't the best?" Chan held up his hand as Changbin opened his mouth to speak. "I mean it. You may think we are, but we've got a lot of room to improve too. Maybe... maybe it's best to jump on the bandwagon."

Changbin stared at him. "How low have your standards dropped, hyung?"

Chan forced himself to stay calm. "You may well say that you want to debut with the best now. But after you see everyone around you debuting, you'll change your mind, trust me. All I want now is to debut!" He hadn't meant to say the last part so loudly.

Jeongin and Jisung both started and looked over at him.

"Hyung-"

"Maybe I'd better go." Jeongin said quickly, "I'll give you time to think about this."

Changbin and Chan barely spoke to each other the rest of the day. Jisung made forced conversation and each of them answered him but not each other. After a long day of tension and practice, they returned to the dorm to shower and rest.

"Chan-hyung," Jisung said tentatively. "I'm going to go to a practice room to try and record something; you guys don't mind if I go by myself?"

"It's fine if you don't want us to come, Jisung." Chan said wearily, opening his laptop. "I'll work on a couple of songs."

"Right." Jisung left, and Chan could feel the atmosphere thicken.

"Chan-hyung look. i think you took this the wrong way. I'm not saying we shouldn't participate in the trainee showcase." Changbin finally spoke. "I'm just saying maybe we should consider our options."

Chan looked over at him. "What options do we have, Changbin? Yes, we may not want these guys, but we'll have to make do."

Changbin shifted. Chan could tell he didn't agree, but didn't want to open his mouth for fear of starting another argument.

"It's not wrong to have such high expectations." Chan tried. "It's good actually, to push yourself. But I'm just so so tired of waiting. We could do a lot worse than these guys. We-"

There was a ratatatatat knocking on the door.

"I'm coming!" Chan called, getting up and opening the door.

Woojin stood there, looking slightly awkward. "Hello," he said, bowing. "Nice to see you again. Can we come in?"

"We?" Changbin stood aside to let them in. After Woojin, Jeongin came in, then Minho who nodded at him and Seungmin, who simply stared at him. Hyunjin came in after that, a wry smile on his face.

"I'm so sorry," Chan immediately apologised. "It's just that-"

"I know, Jeongin explained it to me." Hyunjin clapped him on the shoulder. "It's all right; at least we know someone's looking out for Jisung." he looked over his shoulder as he spoke.

Felix came in last, his left arm hanging a little stiffly by his side. "Hello," his voice was incredibly deep and sexy.

Chan looked at his arm in concern. "Does it hurt much?"

"No, just a little bruising." Chan could see why Changbin had doubts about his proficiency at Korean. He stumbled over his words and spoke hesitatingly.

Changbin nodded around in an awkward fashion as they filed in and sat down. "Jisung went to the practice room to record something," Chan said as he closed the door. "Do you want me to go fetch him?"

As soon as he spoke, the door was pushed open and Jisung entered. He stopped short when he saw everyone, but when his eyes rested on Felix, his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows crept up into his hair. Felix glared at him with the same intense dislike.

"So!" Changbin clapped his hands together so loudly it even startled him, hoping to break the tension. "Why are you guys here?"

Woojin and Minho exchanged looks.

"Well, we need to find out your decision, don't we? We're sorry to push you, but the showcase being so soon, we really need to start practicing."

"I'm sorry, guys, we still-"

Suddenly, the door creaked open. Felix shrunk back against Minho, the glare on his face being replaced with a fearful expression. A tall, muscular guy stood there with his hands on his hips. His hair was gelled back and his lips were pursed. Another guy stood behind him, slightly shorter, but just as stocky. His eyes were dark and menacing and as he crossed his arms, they bulged.

Jisung grabbed Chan's arm. He looked scared out of his wits.

"Ho ho ho," The taller guy raised his eyebrows. "Friendly gathering, is it? Felix, what did I tell you about going out without telling me where you're going?"

"Go away, Dongjin. You're not wanted here."

"Ah, Minho. I've lost track of how many times we've warned you about talking back to us. Oh, and Jaejin, look who's here!"

"Oh, Jisung!" The shorter boy laughed and wiggled his fingers at Jisung in a wave. "How are you, squirrel?"

Chan instinctively started stroking Jisung's hair to calm him down. "Hello, I'm Chan. I'm afraid the policy in this room is that you have to be our friend to come in. Or else- sorry."

"Oh, but we are. Just ask Felix. For that matter, just ask Jisung."

"Jisung?" Jisung shook his head shakily. Chan patted him gently, "Well, I'm sorry, but judging from Jisung's attitude; you're far from friends. Goodbye."

Dongmin narrowed his eyes. "Oh, we will leave. With Felix we will."

"And with Jisung." Jaejin added, "I want to have a lovely talk with him."

Jisung clung to Chan's arm in terror, frantically shaking his head.

"Leave." Woojin said quietly, "Or we'll call the manager."

Dongmin's smile slipped, if only a little. He looked over at Felix, who managed something between a gulp and a sob. "N-no, I'll come."

"What?!" Minho stood up to block Felix's path.

"Now, now, Minho," Dongjin said slowly, "Let him go, or-" he shrugged his shoulders. "Felix knows the consequences. Rest assured he will face...unpleasant circumstances."

"Minho, let him go." Chan ordered.

"But-but," Minho looked pleadingly at Chan. Chan gave him a look of helplessness, telling him that he couldn't do anything either. Felix nodded at him gratefully, which helped ease Chan's conscience a little- he felt as if he were throwing Felix into the lion's den. He nodded at Minho to do it.

Minho sighed and stepped aside. Felix took a deep breath before walking over to Dongjin.

"Jisung, come!" Jaejin ordered.

Chan felt his face drawing down in a scowl. Felix was one thing, but he certainly wouldn't let Jisung go, at least not if he could help it.

"No, I won't." Jisung said firmly.

Jaejin sighed. "I'm only going to warn you once, Jisung. Unless you come-"

He looked over at Dongmin, who shoved Felix into the doorframe, injured arm first. Felix yelped and fell back against the door, swearing under his breath.

"All right, all right!" Jisung stood up as well and went over to Jaejin.

"Excellent!" Dongmin beamed. "Well, toodledo!" he shut the door.

can anyone tell that felix is my second bias? Read and review y'all! Sorry i couldn't do it better!

luv you guys!

luv_wrestlin_fan_gurl